As Russian President Putin talks to other foreign leaders he gets the same message….
“End it’…..
When this ends…
Will there actually be ‘war crimes ‘ trials?
Key developments
- Ukrainian authorities and United Nations monitors are investigating a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izyum. Military and police investigators at the site said there are 445 single graves and at least one mass grave containing 17 bodies. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the bodies show signs of torture and include children. Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said Friday that 22 bodies have been exhumed.
- The bodies discovered in Izyum will be handed over to experts for identification, Ukraine’s commissioner for missing persons said in a statement on Telegram Friday, adding that the number of dead may exceed those killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha at the beginning of the war. Zelensky also posted to Telegram graphic images of forensic experts gathering evidence from unmarked graves and the mud-caked remains of the deceased.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he would strive to stop the war “as soon as possible” — but then blamed Ukraine for refusing to negotiate. His remarks came during an appearance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where they are attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
- The U.N. nuclear watchdog urged Russia to “immediately cease all actions” at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. In a resolution passed by its Board of Governors on Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said hostilities against nuclear facilities in Ukraine have raised the risk of a disaster. Russia’s ambassador in Vienna said Friday that Moscow
Battleground updates
- Several pro-Moscow officials in occupied areas of Ukraine were killed on Friday, including in shelling or explosions Russian media reports blamed on Ukrainian forces. An explosion killed the prosecutor-general of the Russian-controlled Luhansk region and his deputy at their office in eastern Ukraine. Shelling also hit a building of the Russian-appointed administration in Kherson, killing one, and pro-Moscow authorities in Berdyansk accused Ukraine of killing the occupied city’s deputy chief and his wife in a “double murder.”
- The Biden administration anticipates months of intense fighting, despite Ukraine’s latest startling gains, prompting U.S. plans for an open-ended campaign, U.S. officials said. The United States has authorized an additional military aid package for Ukraine valued at $600 million which includes more ammunition for the HIMARS multi-rocket launchers.
- Germany will also send more aid including armored vehicles and multiple rocket launchers, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said. Absent from the latest list are German-made tanks that Kyiv had requested….
Here’s what we know:
Ukrainian investigators have begun exhuming hundreds of bodies found in a mass grave site just days after President Volodymyr Zelensky raised a flag over the reclaimed city.
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‘Here are my neighbors and friends’: In a pine forest full of graves, Ukraine points to atrocities.
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Residents describe Russia’s deadly siege of Izium and months of terror that followed.
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Amid Russia’s growing international isolation, India’s leader tells Putin that today is no time for war.
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Ukrainian prosecutors work to document evidence of war crimes in Kharkiv.
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Putin threatens to escalate war after Russian forces deliver what he called ‘warning strikes.’
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Russia’s central bank cuts rates again, citing weak consumer demand.
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Biden will meet with the families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan….
Note…
No media reports on Ukraine offensive the last few days….
Grain shipements seem to be going on….