The Russian president used a speech to tease the West, promising to achieve his goals in Ukraine. “Her goals are absolutely clear and noble,” he said. “It is clear that we had no choice. It was the right decision. We are back to a dead end for us. “ Rejecting sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies after its invasion of Ukraine, he said Russia would never again depend on the West. Mr Putin, who has been a regular on Russian television since the start of the war, has largely withdrawn from public view since Moscow withdrew its forces from northern Ukraine earlier this month. His speech came amid new investigations into suspected Russian war crimes. The United States has said it could not find evidence of chemical weapons use in Mariupol, while French medical examiners arrived in Bucha near Kyiv to help determine what happened in the city where hundreds of bodies were found as Russian troops withdrew. In a bizarre reversal, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko blamed the United Kingdom for Bucharest’s atrocities, calling them “British special operations”, without elaborating. Boris Johnson spoke by telephone last night with US President Joe Biden to discuss strengthening military and financial support for Ukraine. Western officials have said they expect Russia to double its troop numbers in eastern Ukraine, and satellite imagery also suggests that Russian weapons stockpiling is under way. If the Russians occupied the Azovstal district of Mariupol, they would have full control of the city, a link between the Russian-controlled areas to the west and east. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Tuesday that the latest estimate was that some 21,000 civilians had been killed since the start of the Russian invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky called overnight for more weapons from the West to help Ukraine end the siege of Mariupol. “Unfortunately we are not getting as much as we need to end this war faster … especially, to lift the blockade of Mariupol,” he said. The Ukrainian president has reportedly blocked his German counterpart’s visit to Kyiv in response to Berlin’s close economic ties with Russia. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, was informed that he would not be welcomed despite visits by other European leaders, such as Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, according to the German newspaper Bild. Earlier, Britain said “all possible options” were on the table if it was found that Mr Putin’s forces had used chemical weapons. Mariupol’s Azov Regiment claimed that Russia had used chemical weapons in the southern city. The soldiers were reportedly stunned and could not breathe after a “poisonous substance of unknown origin” fell on them from a Russian drone. Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said the government was examining the allegation and that “there is a theory that these could be phosphorus munitions”. Reports of sexual violence in Ukraine, meanwhile, are on the rise, according to a senior UN official, and a human rights group has accused Russian soldiers of using rape as a weapon of war. The head of the UN for Women, Sima Bahous, told the UN Security Council on Monday night that “we hear more and more about rape and sexual violence. “The barbarity shown against Ukrainian civilians has raised all the red flags,” Ms Bachus said, calling for the allegations to be investigated. Additional reports from agencies The Independent has a proud campaign history for the rights of the most vulnerable and we first launched our “Welcome Refugees” campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and start this report on In the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we call on the government to move faster and faster to secure aid. To learn more about our Refugee Campaign, click here. To sign the application click here. If you would like to donate, click here for our GoFundMe page.
