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)
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Russian ex-President Dmitry Medvedev's statement that Russia seeks only a "swift victory" and the "complete destruction" of the Ukrainian government at the Istanbul peace talks is a "rare moment of honesty," U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on June 3.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck the Crimean Bridge for the third time during the full-scale war, mining and damaging its underwater supports, the SBU announced on June 3.
"The Russians launched a savage strike on Sumy — directly targeting the city and its ordinary streets with rocket artillery. It was a fully deliberate attack on civilians," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
According to Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihant, Russia employed tactics involving the launch of a large number of weapons at a single target from high altitude.
A recent Ukrainian drone strike deep inside Russian territory has sparked anger and concern among Kremlin officials over the exposed vulnerability of a nuclear-capable air force far from the front lines, Bloomberg reported on June 2, citing undisclosed sources close to senior Moscow officials.
"We were invited to the NATO summit. I think this is important," President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a June 2 online press conference attended by the Kyiv Independent.
"There's many members of Congress that want us to sanction Russia as strongly as we can," U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said. "And I'm an advocate of that."
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, is traveling to the U.S., a source close to the Presidential Office told the Kyiv Independent on June 3.
The report came two days after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) launched a mass drone attack against Russian strategic aviation parked at four different air bases on June 1.
Ukrainian forces downed 60 out of the 112 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Fifteen drones were intercepted by electronic warfare or disappeared from radars without causing any damage, according to the statement.
Yevhen Balytskyi, the Kremlin-appointed head of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, claimed that 457 settlements in the region were left without power, affecting more than 600,000 homes.
The U.K. government is ready to sue sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich over the sale of the Chelsea Football Club, U.K. Treasury Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a joint statement.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on June 2 slammed Russia for only providing its memorandum of a peace proposal at talks earlier in the day, saying that "the Russians are once again stalling for time."
Every part of society, every citizen of this country, has a role to play because we have to recognize that things have changed in the world of today... The front line, if you like, is here," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that during the June 2 negotiations in Istanbul, Russian representatives dismissed Ukraine's efforts to raise the issue of abducted Ukrainian children as a "show for childless European old ladies."
"We agreed that we will look for opportunities to close any deficit, which may arise if everything is not restored (Ukrainian gas production infrastructure affected by Russian attacks), if we cannot fully provide our population with gas," Zelensky said.
"I told (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan) that I support a meeting at the level of leaders, because I have the impression that there will be no ceasefire without our meeting," Zelensky said on June 2.
Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK secured a $72-million loan to build one of the largest battery energy storage complexes in Eastern Europe, the company said on June 3.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the next prisoner exchange would feature at least 1,000 people on each side, and might reach a 1,200-for-1,200 swap that would possibly also include imprisoned journalists and political prisoners held in Russia.
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