May 4: Explosions have been heard in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, a day after Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on the Kremlin.
Attacks were also reported in Zaporizhzhia and Odesa in the south.
The air strikes come
KYIV/WASHINGTON, Oct 18: The United States will hold Russia accountable for "war crimes", the White House said on Monday, hours after Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones during morning rush hour, killing at least four people in an apartment building in Kyiv.
GENEVA: U.N. investigators say there is evidence that Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February 2022 committed war crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine presented its findings Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The commission centered its inquiry on events from late February and March in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, […]
JUNE 17: "Ukraine belongs to the European family," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a joint briefing in Kyiv.
But he added that Ukraine still had to meet the accession criteria in full.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the 27-member EU would stand by Ukraine until its victory against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia's continuing aggression as a war "against the united Europe", adding that the "most effective weapon" was unity.
And he again appealed for more heavy weapons to be sent urgently for Ukraine to be able to defend itself more effectively and liberate territories seized by Moscow since the start of the invasion on 24 February.
Earlier on Thursday, the four EU leaders visited the devastated town of Irpin near Kyiv, which for several weeks was occupied by Russia.
Ukraine accuses Russian soldiers of committing war crimes by killing hundreds of civilians in Irpin and nearby towns such as Bucha - a claim denied by Moscow.
The visit to Kyiv comes as Russian troops are continuing their assault on the key city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Capturing Severodonetsk - and its twin city of Lysychansk - has for weeks been a top military goal for Russia, as the Kremlin seeks to control all of the wider Luhansk region.
President Macron and Chancellor Scholz, together with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, visited Ukraine for the first time since the war began.
The trip came a day before the European Commission is due to make a recommendation on whether to give Ukraine an EU candidate status. All 27 EU leaders will then discuss the issue at a summit on 23 and 24 June.
Some of the bloc's members have been lukewarm about Ukraine's accession to the EU, and the words of support from France, Germany and Italy - the three EU heavyweights - could sway their position.
However, candidacy status will only be the next step on the road to the full membership, which may take years.
Before the Kyiv visit, Ukrainian officials repeatedly criticised France, Germany and Italy for being slow in delivering weapons and placing too much focus on appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this month, Mr Macron said it was vital that Russia was not humiliated over its invasion, suggesting that Mr Putin should have a way out of what he called a "fundamental error".
Meanwhile in Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, on Thursday criticised the EU leaders' trip on Twitter, using a dismissive slur relating to stereotypes of three of the EU nations' cuisines.
"European fans of frogs, liverwurst and spaghetti" loved visiting Kyiv, he wrote. "With zero use."
With inputs from BBC
MAY 23: Captured soldier Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was convicted of killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivka on 28 February.
He admitted shooting Mr Shelipov but said he had been acting on orders and asked forgiveness of his widow.
Multiple other alleged war crimes are being investigated by Ukraine.
Moscow has denied its troops targeted civilians during the invasion while Ukraine says more than 11,000 crimes may have occurred.
This trial in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is being seen as Ukraine's chance to prove, beyond doubt, that a Russian soldier killed a civilian with no regard for the rules of war.
Moscow said earlier on Monday that it was concerned at the fate of the Russian soldier and would look at options to defend him.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted, however, that Russia did "not have the capacity to protect his interests in person". Russia's embassy in Kyiv is currently closed.
Shishimarin, wearing a blue and grey hooded sweatshirt, watched proceedings silently from a reinforced glass box in the courtroom and showed no emotion as the verdict was read out, Reuters news agency reports.
At the time of the killing Shishimarin, 21, and other soldiers were travelling in a car they had seized after their convoy came under attack and they became separated from their unit.
When they spotted Mr Shelipov he was speaking on his phone, Shishimarin told the court. He says he was told to shoot him with an assault rifle.
His defence lawyer told the court on Friday that Shishimarin had only fired after twice refusing to carry out the order to shoot and that only one out of three to four rounds had hit the target.
He said Shishimarin had fired the rounds out of fear for his own safety and he questioned whether the defendant had intended to kill.
In one dramatic moment during the trial, the victim's widow Kateryna Shelipova confronted Shishimarin. "Tell me please, why did you [Russians] come here? To protect us?" she asked, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin's justification for the invasion of Ukraine.
"Protect us from whom? Did you protect me from my husband, whom you killed?"
The soldier had no answer to that. Asking forgiveness of the widow earlier, he said: "But I understand you won't be able to forgive me."
Mrs Shelipova told the BBC: "I feel very sorry for him but for a crime like that - I can't forgive him."
With inputs from BBC
MAY 13: Vadim Shishimarin appeared at a preliminary hearing in Kyiv. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Ukraine says it has identified thousands of potential war crimes committed by Russia.
Russia has denied targeting civilians and made no comment on the trial.
Prosecutors say Mr Shishimarin was driving in a stolen vehicle with other soldiers in the north-eastern Sumy region when they encountered a 62-year-old cyclist using a phone.
He was ordered to shoot the civilian to stop them from telling Ukrainian defenders about their location, according to the prosecutors.
It is not clear how he was captured or what the nature of the evidence against him is.
Mr Shishimarin spoke to confirm basic details such as his name. He is yet to enter a plea, and the trial will reconvene next week.
Hundreds of bodies have been found in regions previously occupied by Russia.
Some of Ukraine's allies, such as the UK and US, have joined the country in accusing Russia of carrying out genocide.
After the hearing, state prosecutor Andriy Synyuk told Reuters: "This is the first case today. But soon there will be a lot of these cases."
APRIL 29: Antonio Guterres said the council had failed to prevent or end the war in Ukraine.
This was "a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger," he said.
"Let me be very clear: [it] failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war," he added.
The 15-member UN Security Council is specifically tasked with ensuring global peace and security.
But it has faced criticism, including from Ukraine's government, for failing to act since the invasion began in February.
Russia is one of five permanent members of the body and it has vetoed more than one resolution on the conflict.
Mr Guterres was speaking on Thursday evening at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has previously criticised the Security Council.
"I am here to say to you Mr President, and to the people of Ukraine, we will not give up," he said.
But Mr Guterres also defended his organisation, admitting that while the Security Council had been "paralysed" the UN was taking other actions.
"The UN is the 1,400 staff members in Ukraine who are working to provide assistance, food, cash [and] other forms of support," he told the BBC.
At Thursday's briefing, President Zelensky said Mr Guterres had a chance to witness first-had "all the war crimes" committed by Russia in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader again described Russia's actions in his country as "genocide".
During the UN chief's visit, two blasts hit the central Shevchenko district of Kyiv, with three people taken to hospital with injuries, according to the city's mayor.
Mr Guterres also visited several sites where Ukraine accuses Russia of committing war crimes. Moscow denies the accusation.
In the town of Borodyanka, north-west of Kyiv, Mr Guterres spoke to reporters in front of buildings that had been destroyed by strikes and shelling.
He said the site made him imagine what it would be like for his own family, calling the war in Ukraine an "absurdity in the 21st Century."
And Mr Guterres made a passionate plea to save thousands of people in Ukraine's southern city of Mariupol, which has been virtually destroyed by weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.
"Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis," he said. "Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance, many are elderly and in need of medical care, or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse."
Russia has so far denied repeated requests by Kyiv to allow the last Ukrainian defenders and civilians trapped in the Azovstal industrial area to be evacuated.
But Mr Guterres later told the BBC that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had agreed "in principle" to allow civilians to evacuate the city.
Previous evacuation attempts have stalled and local officials have blamed Russian shelling.
KYIV, Ukraine, April 14: The presidents of four countries on Russia’s doorstep toured war-ravaged areas near the Ukrainian capital and demanded accountability for what they called war crimes, as Kyiv and Moscow gave conflicting accounts of what happened to a badly damaged missile cruiser that is the flagship vessel of Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea.
APRIL 5: Bucha and Irpin were symbols of resistance to the Russian invasion, but they are now becoming synonymous with the war's most serious abuses.
Ukrainian authorities say the bodies of 410 civilians have been found in the areas around Kyiv so far.
Russia, without evidence, says the photos and videos are "a staged performance" by Ukraine.
But what officials and reporters have seen there in the wake of the Russian withdrawal has left many in deep shock.
What happened in Bucha?
Two or three days after Russia launched the 24 February invasion of its neighbour, a column of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APC) that had arrived in Bucha was attacked by Ukrainians, stalling the advance.
The Russians reinforced and stayed in the area on the outskirts of the capital, unable to move forward much, until they began pulling out on 30 March.
Many civilians had fled the area - but some stayed behind, trying to avoid the Russians. It is during this period that Russians reportedly started going house to house.
Witnesses have described how Russian soldiers fired on men fleeing after refusing to allow them to leave through humanitarian corridors.
Officials and reporters who went in after the Russians had left saw tanks and APCs, alongside at least 20 dead men lying in the streets.
Many had extensive wounds - some had been shot through the temple, as if executed. Some had their hands - or legs - tied. Others had clearly been run over by tanks.
Satellite images taken by Maxar show a 14m (45ft) mass grave in Bucha near the church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints.
The company says the first signs of excavation were spotted on 10 March - not long after the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And Bucha residents have said the first bodies were buried there in the first few days of the war, as Russians killed scores by "shooting everyone they saw". Estimates of those buried range from 150-300.
'Shot in the back of the head'
Human Rights Watch has gathered evidence of alleged war crimes in Bucha and other cities and towns under the control of Russian forces.
In a report published on 3 April 2022, it recorded an account of an incident in Bucha on 4 March in which Russian soldiers forced five men "to kneel on the side of the road, pulled their T-shirts over their heads, and shot one of the men in the back of the head".
And more gruesome details continue to emerge.
The BBC's Yogita Limaye visited the basement of a home in Bucha where the bodies of five men wearing civilian clothes were left. They had their hands bound behind their backs and appeared to have been shot dead.
The Ukrainians say similar accounts are surfacing elsewhere and will be investigated.
In the nearby village of Motyzhyn, a BBC team were taken to see a shallow grave - four bodies were visible, and Ukrainian officials said there could be more.
Three of the bodies have been identified as that of the head of the village Olga Sohnenko, her husband and her son. The fourth has not been identified yet.
It is unclear when they were killed.
The areas around Kyiv now back under Ukrainian control include the commuter town of Irpin, where heart-breaking images showed civilians fleeing under Russian fire for days on end.
There were cases of people being shot at as they did so. On 6 March four civilians - a woman, her teenage son, her daughter of around eight years of age, and a family friend - were all killed by mortar fire as they tried to cross a battered bridge.
In another incident, a mother and son were also killed and buried by neighbours in the courtyard of the block of flats.
On 7 March, drone footage showed a car on a road outside Kyiv, from which a man emerges with hands raised. His body falls to the ground. Maksim Iovenko, 31, was shot dead by Russian forces that were positioned at the roadside. His wife Ksenia, who was in the car, was also killed.
The HRW report includes the case of a mother in the city of Kharkiv, who was raped by a 20-year-old Russian soldier inside a school where civilians were sheltering.
And many more.
Accusations of war crimes and genocide
President Volodymyr Zelensky has no doubt that Russian troops are committing war crimes and even genocide against his people. Genocide is understood by most to be the gravest crime against humanity. It is defined as a mass extermination of a particular group of people - exemplified by the efforts of the Nazis to eradicate the Jewish population in the 1940s.
"The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth," Mr Zelensky said on Sunday, as evidence of the murders of Bucha became public.
He told US network CBS's Face the Nation programme: "Indeed. This is genocide.
"The elimination of the whole nation, and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities."
Many Western countries have expressed their horror at the images of bodies strewn on city streets.
But Russia remains defiant. It says its operation - which they refuse to call a war of invasion - is proceeding according to plan, and that accusations of war crimes are all fake.
With inputs from BBC
Moscow faced global revulsion and accusations of war crimes Monday after the Russian pullout from the outskirts of Kyiv revealed streets, buildings and yards are strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians.
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