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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the UN Security Council on Tuesday at a session that will review allegations that Russian forces have intentionally murdered civilians in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, following the discovery of hundreds of bodies. Read our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time [GMT+2].
10:02am: Denmark expels 15 Russian diplomats over Bucha killings
The Danish government has decided to expel 15 Russian diplomats following reports of mass graves being found and of civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, according to Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod. The 15 expelled diplomats are accused of spying, he explained.
08:40am: Red Cross team held on way to Marioupol ‘released’
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been released after being stopped during an attempt to reach the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and held in nearby Manhush, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday.
“After negotiations, they were released during the night and sent to Zaporizhzhia,” she said referring to a nearby city.
The team had been aiming to reach the besieged city of Mariupol on Monday and evacuate some of the remaining residents who are lacking basic supplies. It was their fourth such attempt since Friday.
08:38am: EU ‘probably’ to adopt new Russian sanctions Wednesday, French minister says
The European Union will most likely adopt a new round of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday after reports of killings of civilians in northern Ukraine by Russian forces, said France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune.
“The new sanctions will probably be adopted tomorrow,” Beaune told RFI radio on Tuesday, adding the EU should also quickly act on gas and coal imports from Russia.
Russia denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians, including in Bucha. Its envoy to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said Russia will present “empirical evidence” to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday showing its forces were not involved in atrocities.
07:57am: ‘Extraordinary defeat of Russian forces’ in Bucha
Despite the massive destruction and dead civilians they allegedly left behind them, Russian forces do not seem to have retreated from the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, voluntarily, but rather because they faced an “extraordinary defeat” by Ukrainian troops. “It was clearly not an orderly withdrawal from these areas. There are destroyed Russian military vehicles absolutely everywhere,” FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.
‘Extraordinary defeat of Russian forces in Bucha’
6:30am: Ukraine’s Zelensky to address UN Security Council
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday after saying it is in Kyiv’s interest to have the most open investigation into the killing of civilians in Ukraine.
He said that in Bucha, where mass graves and bodies were found after Ukraine took the town back from Russian forces, at least 300 civilians have been killed, and he expects that in Borodyanka and other towns the number of casualties may be even higher.
The speech will be Zelensky’s first to the UN body since Russia’s invasion. It comes after he made an emotional trip to Bucha outside the capital, where dozens of bodies were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Horrific images of corpses lying in the streets, some with their hands bound behind them, have drawn international condemnation.
04:04am: Moscow warns of ‘symmetrical’ response to Western countries’ expulsion of Russian diplomats
Russia will respond proportionately to the expulsion of its diplomats from a number of Western countries, Russian ex-president and deputy head of security council Dmitry Medvedev said late on Monday.
“Everyone knows the answer: it will be symmetrical and destructive for bilateral relations,” Medvedev said in a posting on his Telegram channel.
“Who have they punished? First of all, themselves.”
On Monday, France said it would expel 35 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Germany declared “significant number” of Russian diplomats as undesirable.
“If this continues, it will be fitting, as I wrote back on 26th February – to slam shut the door on Western embassies,” Medvedev said. “It will be cheaper for everyone. And then we will end up just looking at each other in no other way than through gunsights.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
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