The coming days will be “the last chance” for civilians in eastern Ukraine to evacuate the region, local authorities warned on Thursday (April 7th) as Russian troops intend to concentrate on the Donbass regions. “All the free towns in the Lugansk region are under enemy fire,” warned its governor, Serguiï Gaïdaï, indicating that the Russians “were in the process of cutting off all possible exit routes”.
Faced with the actions of Moscow, and the macabre discoveries in besieged cities, such as Borodianka, the UN took a firm decision: to exclude Russia from its Human Rights Council. New sanctions were also imposed.
A fifth set of sanctions against Russia
The European Union (EU) decided on Thursday an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of European ports to Russian ships, as part of a fifth salvo of sanctions against Moscow, announced the French presidency of the Council of the EU. . At the same time, the EU has offered to increase funding to provide arms to Ukraine by 500 million euros, which would be increased to a total of 1.5 billion since the start of the invasion.
By a vote in Congress, the United States for its part officially revoked the trade status of Russia and Belarus on Thursday, paving the way for punitive customs duties. The congressional bill also requires the United States to call for Russia’s suspension from the World Trade Organization. The G7 countries also announced new economic sanctions against Russia on Thursday, including a ban on new investment in key sectors.
UN suspends Moscow from Human Rights Council
The UN General Assembly, made up of 193 member countries, on Thursday suspended Russia from its seat on the UN Human Rights Council, in a vote that garnered 93 votes in favor. Twenty-four countries voted against this suspension – the second in the history of the UN after the ousting of Libya in 2011 -, initiated by the United States. And 58 countries abstained.
US President Joe Biden “applauded” this vote in a statement, saying that “Russia’s lies do not hold up against the indisputable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine.” “Indications of rape, torture, execution – with in some cases desecrated bodies – are an insult to humanity,” he added.
26 bodies found in rubble at Borodianka
Twenty-six bodies have been discovered by Ukrainian rescue workers in the rubble of two bombed apartment buildings in Borodianka, northwest of kyiv, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova announced on Thursday. “Only the civilian population was targeted: there is no military site” in this locality recently taken over by Ukrainian forces after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the kyiv region, she said.
The situation in Borodyanka is “much more horrible” than in Boutcha, where civilians were massacred, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday evening. “There are more victims” in this small town than in Boutcha. “Every crime will be solved and every executioner will be found,” he said.
An investigation into Boutcha, “the next step”
An investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of people dressed in civilian clothes, found dead in Boutcha by the Ukrainian authorities after the withdrawal of the Russian army, is “the next step”, Martin Griffiths said Thursday. “The world is already deeply shocked,” the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told a Boutcha town hall official.
In addition, the German intelligence services (BND) recorded radio communications from Russian soldiers in which they evoke the abuses committed in Boutcha, the magazine said on Thursday. der Spiegel. In one of the radio messages mentioned, a soldier explains to another that he and his colleagues killed a person on a bicycle. In another, a man says: “First we interrogate the soldiers, then we shoot them.”
5,000 dead in Mariupol
Proclaimed the city’s “new mayor” only on Wednesday April 6 by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol, Konstantin Ivashchenko delivered his report to the Russian state agency TASS on Thursday, estimating the civilian losses at “around 5,000 people”, while “about 60-70% of the housing stock has been destroyed or partially destroyed”.
He also estimated that 250,000 people had left the city but that at least as many, possibly 300,000, remained behind. Ukraine instead estimates that 100,000 people are still in the city, where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic.