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)
Dan Negrea, a U.S. envoy to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, instead called upon "both sides" to cease any strikes that might pose a risk to civilian vessels.
The High Anti-Corruption Court on Aug. 25 placed Iryna Mudra, a former deputy head of the President's Office, in custody for two months in a graft case and set bail at Hr 20 million ($448,000).
Polish diplomat Michal Miarka underscored recent violations of the Polish, Romanian, and Latvian airspace, saying they cannot be accepted as the "new normal."
U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham and other European leaders plan to lobby U.S. President Donald Trump next month to provide Ukraine access to U.S. stockpiles of Patriot missiles, Burnham said on Aug. 24.
Ukraine's military launched an attack on Russia's Krasnodar Krai overnight on Aug. 25, reportedly striking the Afipsky Oil Refinery, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told parliament on Aug. 24 that Yerevan will soon launch its bid to join the European Union, as the country seeks to further distance itself from Russia.
Concepts included "civic volunteerism" from the U.S., the British idiom "keep calm and carry on," and Ukraine's "sophiynist" — a philosophy of resilience that involves translating emotional and intellectual understanding into action.
The new agreement gives the U.K. access to Ukraine's AI Avengers Labs, which contains a trove of real-world battlefield data for training AI defense systems. The U.K. will be the first foreign partner to access the dataset.
The president revealed that Ukraine produces about 200-300 drones a day — but needs to churn out over three times that number to stay competitive with Moscow.
"They began recruiting me, threatening me in every possible way, humiliating me, saying some very unpleasant things, threatening to kill my family, and telling me that I would never in my life be able to prove who killed my mother," Rita Flores said.
This story exists because readers chose to back it. Behind it is a newsroom that will not look away — and a community of people who make that possible. It's thanks to 35,000 members that our reporting stays free for everyone to read, and we can continue our reporting. Will you be one of them?
on Google
