Burned corpses and cars are seen on the road in Kyiv Oblast on April 2, 2022. (Getty Images)
April 4 marks 40 days of Russia's barbarous war in Ukraine.
The extent of Russia's cruelty against Ukrainians, however, was discovered just two days ago.
On April 2, Ukrainian forces regained control of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv, revealing the many horrific atrocities of Russia's weeks-long occupation.
Hundreds of civilian residents were found dead on the streets, by their homes and in mass graves.
Following one of the darkest days of the war, one that truly shocked the Ukrainian nation and the whole world, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the kind of address that "presidents don't usually give."
"Concentrated evil has come to our land," he said. "Murderers, butchers, rapists, looters, who call themselves an army and who deserve only to die after what they have done."
Since Moscow unleashed its all-out war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, at least 1,232 civilian Ukrainians have been killed, according to the United Nations. The actual figures, however, are expected to be much higher, as casualties from front-line areas aren't counted due to a lack of data.
At least 161 children have been killed and 264 injured by Russia's war, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office.
Bodies lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, as Ukrainian forces retook control of the town on April 2, 2022 following weeks of Russian occupation. (AFP via Getty Images)A cyclist rides past buildings on fire following an artillery fire in Kharkiv, a regional capital in northeastern Ukraine, on March 25, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Rescuers remove rubble from the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration building where at least 35 people were killed by a Russian cruise missile attack on April 1, 2022, in Mykolaiv, a regional capital in southern Ukraine. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)A partially buried body is seen in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, on April 3, 2022. Hundreds of killed civilians were found in the town after Ukrainian forces retook it following weeks of Russian occupation. (AFP/Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) walks in the town of Bucha, just northwest of Kyiv, the site of Russia's massacre of civilian residents, on April 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Communal workers and volunteers build a protective structure around a monument to the poet Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv on April 3, 2022. (Getty Images)A woman hugs a volunteer fighting with the Territorial Defense Force after the Russian troop withdrawal from the Nova Basan village in Chernihiv Oblast on April 1, 2022. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty Images for The Recording Academy)The newlyweds, medical volunteers Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov, pose for a photograph in a ruined courtyard of a shopping and business complex in central Kharkiv on April 3, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A resident walks in front of a destroyed building in Trostyanets, Sumy Oblast, on March 29, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)U.S. President Joe Biden kisses a child while meeting refugees of Russia's war against Ukraine at PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)An ostrich walks on the destroyed enclosure at an eco-park in Yasnohorodka, a village north of Kyiv on April 2, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A young girl sits on a suitcase at a train station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 3, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A destroyed column of Russia's military vehicles is seen on the highway near Buzova village in Kyiv Oblast on April 3, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)The family of Ukrainian soldier Ivan Lipskiy grieves at his casket during a funeral of five Ukrainian soldiers in Odesa on March 29, 2022. Lipskiy was killed on March 18 during a Russian air strike that hit the 36th Ukrainian Naval Infantry Brigade killing more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers in Mykolaiv. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian oil refinery in Tatarstan as a blackout took place in occupied Simferopol and fires broke out in Donetsk Oblast amid overnight attacks on Aug. 10, monitoring channels reported.
"Moscow is implementing Rassvet, effectively a Russian analogue of the Starlink system. And they have begun launching it significantly faster than was envisaged in their plans," Skibitskyi said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
Russia launched 126 Shahed-type and other attack drones, as well as one Kh-59/69 guided aerial missile and three Banderol loitering munitions, the Air Force said.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Aug. 9 condemned the U.N. Humanitarian Aid Organization for Children (UNICEF) for failing to recognize Russia's responsibility for Ukrainian civilian casualties in a recent statement.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry says the agreement "opens the way for a new phase in Syrian-Russian relations" following Moscow's support of deposed former President Bashar al-Assad.
The demonstrations come amid a surge in physical and verbal assaults against Ukrainians in Poland in recent months, fueled by a crisis in diplomatic relations between the neighboring countries.
In Serbia, Zelensky confirmed that Kyiv does not officially recognize Kosovo's independence. Officials in Kosovo said his stance was "deeply disappointing" given the country's support for Ukraine.
"The S-400 position in Gelendzhik ... was ablaze and sputtering for three hours," the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, announced.
Did Ukraine's largest deep-strike campaign achieve its goal? In this episode of Ukraine This Week, Anna Belokur examines the results of Ukraine's 40-day campaign of long-range drone strikes deep inside Russia – whether it shifted the balance in the war, weakened Russia's economy, or changed the Kremlin's political calculations.
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