Burned corpses and cars are seen on the road in Kyiv Oblast on April 2, 2022. (Getty Images)
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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)
Russian soldiers executed two captured Ukrainian soldiers near Selydove in Donetsk Oblast, the Donetsk regional prosecutor's office reported on Oct.21.
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed to have shot down a cargo plane in Darfur, with speculation that Russian nationals may have been on board.
"Every meeting with our partners involves discussions about the defense-industrial complex," Zelensky said in his evening address. "We need Ukraine to be able to defend its sovereignty and independence regardless of any political threats in the world."
"The people of Moldova have spoken: our EU future will now be anchored in the constitution," Sandu said on X. "We fought fairly in an unfair fight—and we won. But the fight isn’t over. We will keep pushing for peace, prosperity, and the freedom to build our own future."
"Your unwavering support is not just a gesture of friendship. It's a powerful symbol of the shared values that bind our nations together," Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Russia attacked the towns of Kurakhove and Myrnohrad in the Pokrovsk district of Donetsk Oblast on Oct. 21, killing three and injuring two people, local authorities reported.
"I will participate in the elections… as a candidate" when the time is right, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny told the BBC in an interview published on Oct. 21.
Moldova's referendum on joining the EU, which took place alongside elections in the country, occurred under "unprecedented interference" by Russia and its proxies, European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said.
"North Korea sending troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine would mark a significant escalation," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on social media following a conversation with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
General Major Oleh Huliak replaced Herman Smetanin, who became the head of the Strategic Industries Ministry as part of the biggest wartime government reshuffle in September.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 59 of the 116 Shahed-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force said. Forty-five drones were reportedly "lost" on Ukrainian territory, and 10 more are still present in the Ukrainain airspace at the time of the publication.
South Korea on Oct. 21 summoned the Russian ambassador in Seoul, Georgy Zinoviev, to protest the dispatch of North Korean troops to assist Moscow's war against Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported.
According to the agency's internal documents, the IAEA signed at least two agreements with Russian research institutes to conduct research that included fieldwork in Crimea. The deals were signed between 2016 and 2019, and the first was reportedly extended in the summer of 2019.
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