WAR IN UKRAINE: April 1, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 401
Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, the Ukrainian town that has become synonymous with unspeakable Russian war crimes. President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will “punish every perpetrator” for the atrocities committed. “Bucha and Bucha district. 33 days of occupation. More than 1,400 deaths, including 37 children. More than 175 people were found in mass graves and torture chambers…We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator."
Russia targeted civilian infrastructure in the city of Kharkiv with nine missile strikeslaunched from S-300 air-to-surface systems and 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Ukrainian military said on March 31. Meanwhile, a civilian was killed and six others were wounded by Russian shelling in the area around Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirylenko, wrote on Telegram on March 31 - RFE/RL
A new $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine could be announced next week, U.S. officials say - VOA
U.S. President Joe Biden called on Russia on Friday to release detained Wall Street Journal-reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Moscow accused of being a spy. "Let him go," Biden said. Russia responded that any U.S. threats over the reporter's arrest would reap a "whirlwind." The Journal said the detention of Gershkovich was based on false allegations - VOA
At this stage it seems completely clear that Gershkovich has been fitted up for simply doing his job: asking people questions, and writing down what they say - reports The Telegraph’s Roland Oliphant. Under expanded war-time national security laws, that might be enough for the FSB to come up with a narrowly legal pretext for holding him, however absurd. It is already being speculated that the true purpose is to gain a hostage - someone the Russians can use as a bargaining chip to secure the release of some of their own citizens held in the West.
According to Ukraine’s state environmental inspectorate, during the 10 months of aggression, Russia caused losses in the amount of over 55 billion hryvnias due to man-made pollution, water pollution and arbitrary use of water resources. “At the same time, through its war crimes, the Russian Federation causes significant damage to economic sectors, poses a threat to the normal provision of drinking water needs of the population, household, medical, health, agricultural and industrial needs,” explained the state environmental inspectorate of Ukraine.