Western media continue to report about the war in Ukraine: on April 5, the media covered evidence of Russian war crimes in the Kyiv region, a US ban on Moscow paying off debts from frozen accounts in the United States, and a new package of sanctions against Russia from the EU.
In addition, the West wrote about the call of American leader Joe Biden to punish Putin, as well as the reactions of France and Japan to the Bucha massacre. The media also covered the address of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to the UN Security Council.
offers an up-to-date review of what the European and American media are reporting, covering 41 days of active Russian invasion.
Bucha: satellite images proved Russia’s lie
The New York Times published its analysis of satellite images from Bucha in the exact coordinates, proving that the bodies of civilians killed by the Russian occupiers had lain on the streets for weeks, until the city was liberated from invaders.
According to the newspaper, the Bucha massacre provides more and more evidence of numerous flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions by Russia and the commission of war crimes.
Experts in international law say photos of civilians shot in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities, along with eyewitness testimonies, could be the basis for an investigation.
'The killings in Bucha could not be cast as unintentional damage', emphasizes the journalist.
Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said the killings have generated so much shock because the victims weren’t undeliberate.
The Times in its article on the same topic reminds that the Russian government tried to deny its responsibility. Russia’s Defense Ministry suggested that the bodies were recently exposed after 'all Russian units completely withdrew from Bucha on March 30'.
However, satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies show that at least 11 of them have been on the streets since March 11, when Russia controlled the area.
Kremlin pushed to default
Reuters writes that the United States stopped Moscow from paying more than $600 million in sovereign debt from reserves held at US banks.
On Monday, April 4, when it was time for the largest payments (more than $550 million), the US government cut off Moscow's access to frozen funds. A payment of $84 million was also due on Monday.
This should force Moscow to decide whether to use available dollars to pay off debt or to support its military efforts.
Russia faces a historic default if it does not pay the money within 30 days, or pays it in rubles or other currencies other than the dollar.
Europe prepares new package of sanctions against Russia
Reuters reports that the European Commission discussed a fifth package of sanctions against Russia on April 5, including a ban on energy imports and exports.
At the same time, The Wall Street Journal writes that not all EU member states are ready to support sanctions to ban the import of Russian oil and coal. Therefore, they are currently considering an alternative option — to increase import tariffs.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron called on April 4 to ban imports of Russian oil and coal, and some EU members who opposed energy sanctions now support the move. Germany, for example, has agreed to a phased embargo.
The list of possible sanctions, which will be agreed on Friday, April 8, was officially confirmed on Twitter by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Photo: Getty Images
The offered list include such points:
- a ban on coal imports from Russia worth €4 billion a year;
- a complete ban on transactions for four key Russian banks, including VTB, Russia's second-largest bank;
- a ban on access of Russian ships to EU ports and ban on entry of Russian and Belarusian vehicles (exception — food, medicine and energy);
- further export bans of €10 billion in important areas: advanced semiconductors, machinery and transport equipment;
- new import bans worth €5.5 billion;
- banning Russian companies from participating in public procurement in the EU and excluding any financial support to Russian government agencies.
In addition, they will expand the list of individual sanctions against Russia and work on additional ones.
Meanwhile, the EBRD Board of Governors voted to suspend funding for all projects in Russia and Belarus.
Biden: Putin is brutal, but this is not genocide
Photo: Getty Images
CNN reports that US President Joe Biden called the atrocities committed by Russia and bloody dictator Vladimir Putin in Bucha a 'war crime'.
However, he noted that this is not genocide. The American leader added that he was considering additional sanctions against Russia.
The BBC also writes that Biden has called for President Putin to be tried for war crimes. International anger over the killing of civilians in Bucha is growing.
Reaction of France, Japan to atrocities in Bucha
Photo: Getty Images
French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti offered Ukraine assistance in documenting war crimes.
Meanwhile, the Japanese newspaper NHK writes that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has condemned the killings of civilians in the Kyiv region.
Photo: Getty Images
The Japanese prime minister called for additional sanctions against those who were responsible for the killings and said Tokyo would work closely with the international community.
Zelensky at UN: you can dissolve yourself
Photo: Getty Images
On April 5, the Western media also followed the address of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to the UN Security Council.
They expected that the President of Ukraine would demand an investigation into war crimes in a video address to the Security Council, wrote The Washington Post.
This is Zelensky's first speech since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to the BBC.
Zelensky said that on April 4 he returned from the city of Bucha, liberated from the Russian occupiers, and described in detail the crimes they committed against civilians in the Kyiv region. He talked about shootings, torture, rape, how people were shot in the eye, cut off limbs and tongues, stabbed with tanks and tried to burn bodies.
Zelensky said that Russia with its crimes is 'pursuing its policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity', adding that Russia aimed to kill as many Ukrainians as possible, leaving only ruins and mass graves.
He also sharply criticized the UN Security Council's inability to secure peace by forcing the aggressor.
Russia is undermining the whole structure of global security. According to Zelensky, if this continues, each state will be able to count only on the strength of weapons. And then the UN can simply be closed, the Ukrainian leader stressed.
He called for an analogue of the Nuremberg Trials and suggested convening a global conference in peaceful Kyiv to discuss how the world would continue to guarantee the integrity of states.
Instead of an afterword. Shocked by Russia's crimes against civilians in Ukraine, the West has already imposed some restrictions on Moscow, such as the United States, and is preparing a new serious package of sanctions that will further stifle the economy of the terrorist country. The new restrictions from the EU, while not yet including an immediate embargo on Russian oil and gas, could accelerate Russia's default and force the Kremlin to look for new ways to pay off debts, which will also limit their military capabilities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, rightly noted that the UN must either dissolve itself or forbid the aggressors to block decisions on their occupying actions. Although the speech of the President of Ukraine was met with loud applause and his words were painful and true, the decision is now up to the UN. After all, there is no doubt that the Kremlin will use its veto power by abusing its membership in an organization created to ensure world peace.
At the same time, Joe Biden's statement that the actions of Russians in the Kyiv region do not lead to genocide is strange, when Russia has already written directly about punishing the Ukrainian population for so-called "support of Nazism" and the need to destroy the Ukrainian state, including the name. Ukraine, which insists on such a qualification of the atrocities of the Moscow occupiers, has been fighting for its right to exist for 41 days.
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