In the city of Bukha, northwest of Kiev, the mayor estimated that 300 people had been killed. Journalists found dozens of bodies in two mass graves, and residents gave Al Jazeera horrific descriptions of harassment and death threats. The Human Rights Watch said it had recorded war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Kiev, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions of northern Ukraine, including one case of repeated rape and two brief executions. One of those executions was in Bouha on March 4, the group said. (Al Jazeera) “You may remember, I was criticized for calling [Russian President Vladimir] “Putin is a war criminal,” said US President Joe Biden on April 4. “Well, the truth of the matter – you saw what happened in Bucha. That justifies him – he is a war criminal. “ Russia’s Defense and Foreign Ministries have denounced reports of war crimes. “The video material is not credible, as our experts from the Ministry of Defense found signs of video forgery and various forgeries. We would demand from many world leaders not to rush into statements, baseless accusations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told April. . The United States, France and Germany have deported dozens of Russian diplomats in response to alleged atrocities. Other members of the European Union have followed suit. The UN Security Council has not been able to criticize Russia for being a veto-wielding permanent member. On April 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised the UN Security Council to expel Russia or disband itself.
Orientation
Cities around Kyiv have been evacuated as part of a Russian plan to focus its firepower on the east of the country. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on March 30 that about a fifth of the Russian forces besieging Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy in the north of the country were withdrawing. Greek retired lieutenant general and security expert Andreas Iliopoulos told Al Jazeera that he believes Russia will soon move to occupy the western port of Odessa, completing its occupation of the Ukrainian coast and turning the Black Sea into a Russian lake “. “An amphibious landing to occupy Odessa is an easy task for Russia, which has dominance in the Black Sea,” he said. Three Russian missiles reportedly hit an oil refinery on the outskirts of the city on April 1, in what may have been the first bulwark of the Odessa battle. The attack took place during the Greek Foreign Minister’s visit to the city’s large Greek minority. Iliopoulos believes that part of this second phase of the operation will be the conquest of “the areas east of the Dnieper River, in order to encircle the Ukrainian forces there and force them to surrender; as long as the Ukrainian forces remain there, it will be a Russian target.” Russia’s far-reaching goals in Ukraine have gradually become clear, Iliopoulos told Al Jazeera. “Russia’s strategic goals will be to divide Ukraine along the Dnieper River, with Russia taking the eastern side. “It will seek to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea and take over nine of Ukraine’s fifteen nuclear power plants,” said Iliopoulos, a former Marine who until recently served as deputy commander of the Greek Army. “[Russia] will then have the richest part of Ukraine, containing all its natural gas and exportable metals, and then sit down to negotiate. But I do not think it will give anything back. You do not sign what you have won with blood “.
“Putin is being misinformed”
Russia recognized the eastern regions of Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, as independent democracies on February 21, days before the invasion began. More than a month later, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state television that the strategic importance of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine was to restore Moscow to a level playing field with Washington and Beijing on the world stage. “A monopoly world is receding irreparably into the past and a multipolar world is being born,” Lavrov said on March 31. “There will not be a single ruler in this new reality. “All the major states with decisive influence in the world economy and politics must compromise. No one on Earth will be considered a second-class player.” American and Western observers have expressed doubts about whether the Russian military can achieve these goals. “We believe Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is doing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his top advisers are too scared to tell him the truth,” said Kate Bedingfield, its communications director. White House. , he told reporters on March 31. Meanwhile, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development predicts that Russia’s economy will shrink by 10 percent this year and Ukraine’s by 20 percent. It was projected to increase by 3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. He believes growth will fall to a meager 1.7 percent in areas where it operates in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, from the initial forecast of 4.2 percent.
Strengthening the ruble
On March 31, Putin said that countries imposing sanctions on Russia must pay for their gas imports in rubles. “If such payments [in roubles] are not made, we will consider it as an unfair obligation on the part of the buyers, with all the consequent consequences. “No one is selling us anything for free and we are not going to do charity either – that is, the existing contracts will be terminated,” Putin said. Although a deadline of April 1 was set, the Kremlin later extended it by several weeks. “Payment for the real thing [gas] “Deliveries that are being made now do not need to be made today, and they should be made at the end, in the second half of April or even in the beginning of May,” Peshkov told reporters. Lavrov explained the reasons for the ruble sales during a visit to New Delhi on April 1st. “We do not want to depend on a system that could shut down at any time. “And we do not want to depend on a system that has masters who can steal your money overnight,” Lavrov said, referring to the freezing of assets of the Russian Central Bank held in Western banks and the suspension of Russian institutions from the SWIFT global interbank system. A second reason may be the strengthening of the value of the ruble, which has depreciated under the pressure of sanctions. In the months leading up to its invasion, Russia cut gas sales to Europe to the lowest possible level without disrupting long-term contracts. It now threatens to activate default clauses, allowing it to legally suspend deliveries of these contracts. A halt to the flow of gas would be a shock to Europe, which depended on Russia for a third of its gas last year. The European Commission said it would take the EU a year to replace two-thirds of these imports. Germany, Russia’s largest customer in the EU, has refused to pay for its gas in rubles, while pro-Russia Hungary, also a member of the bloc, has said it will meet that demand. On April 6, Germany updated its Renewable Energy Act to make the country’s electricity generation free of fossil fuels by 2035. Its previous target was 2050.
