Russia-Ukraine latest news: Germany main roadblock to tougher Russian sanctions, Poland’s PM says

Germany is the main roadblock to imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, Poland’s Prime Minister has said, as calls mount to punish Moscow for apparent war crimes.

“We have to see that, regardless of how we approach Hungary, this is the fourth such win and we have to respect democratic elections… it’s Germany that is the main roadblock on sanctions. Hungary is for the sanctions,” Mateusz Morawiecki said.

His comments came as the EU prepares to hit Moscow with tougher sanctions after allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.

Satellite images appeared to show mass graves in the town of Bucha, and the bodies of 410 civilians found in formerly Russian occupied territories around Kyiv are being examined by forensic experts.

​​Follow the latest updates below.

11:17 AM

‘Murderers, torturers, rapists’: Zelensky accuses Russia of ‘war crimes’ near Kyiv

11:00 AM

UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by Bucha killings, evokes possible war crimes

The UN human rights chief said Monday she was “horrified” by images of dead bodies in Bucha, near the Ukrainian capital, after Russian soldiers retreated, warning of possible war crimes.

“I am horrified by the images of civilians lying dead on the streets and in improvised graves in the town of Bucha in Ukraine,” Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

“Reports emerging from this and other areas raise serious and disturbing questions about possible war crimes, grave breaches of international humanitarian law and serious violations of international human rights law,” she said.

10:52 AM

Japan slams ‘exceptionally cruel’ civilian deaths near Kyiv

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Monday condemned the “exceptionally cruel” violence against civilians near Kyiv in an apparent reference to killings in the town of Bucha.

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“I am deeply shocked by news of the exceptionally cruel acts of violence against civilians near Kyiv. The murder of innocent civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and is unacceptable and I strongly condemn these acts,” he told reporters during a visit to Warsaw.

10:30 AM

Village leader and family found buried in shallow grave outside Ukrainian capital

The head of the village of Motyzhyn, her husband and son were killed and buried in a shallow grave, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry said on Monday, showing their partially covered bodies in the sand.

Reuters could not independently verify who killed the family in the grave just outside Motyzhyn, west of Kyiv. Moscow has denied targeting civilians and has said similar reports of killings were “staged” to sully Russia’s name.

“There have been Russian occupiers here. They tortured and murdered the whole family of the village head,” said Anton Herashchenko, naming those killed as Olha Sukhenko, her husband Ihor Sukhenko and their son, Oleksandr.

“The occupiers suspected they were collaborating with our military, giving us locations of where to target our artillery. These scum tortured, slaughtered and killed the whole family. They will be responsible for this.”

A Reuters reporter saw the bodies in a forest near a farm, which had been all but destroyed, just outside the village of Motyzhyn. Nearby a burnt out tractor could be seen and one of those buried in the sand had his head taped.

10:26 AM

Spain police detain superyacht suspected to belong to a Russian oligarch in Mallorca

Spanish authorities detained a superyacht suspected to belong to a Russian oligarch in Mallorca, a Spanish police source said on Monday.

Spanish authorities have detained other superyachts suspected of belonging to Russian individuals under sanctions over the past weeks.

10:19 AM

Graphic video shows bodies scattered across Bucha after Russia’s retreat

10:18 AM

Greek consulate reopens in Odesa

The Greek consulate in Odesa reopened on Monday, the consul in the southwestern Ukrainian port city said, a day after shelling by Russian forces.

Consul Dimitrios Dohtsis pointed to the “large Greek community of 2,500” people in Odesa and the surrounding areas as he told Greek radio station Skai that the “consulate had reopened”.

The move comes a day after Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias visited Odessa where he delivered humanitarian aid to the Black Sea city.

For the first time in nearly two weeks, Russian air strikes hit Odesa on Sunday, apparently targeting the city’s infrastructure. “The attack on a city is unacceptable, it’s a war crime,” Mr Dendias said in a statement.

10:10 AM

Ukraine claims 18,300 Russian personnel killed in Ukraine

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that 18,300 Russian personnel have been killed there so far.

It also said that Russia has lost 1844 armoured vehicles in the invasion.

These figures have not been independently verified.

10:07 AM

Putin hails Orban on vote win, hopes to build ‘partnership’

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday after his party won a fourth term in office and said he hoped to further build ties, the Kremlin said.

“The head of the Russian state expressed confidence that, despite the difficult international situation, the further development of bilateral ties of partnership fully meets the interests of the peoples of Russia and Hungary,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The 69-year-old Russian leader has been increasingly isolated internationally after he sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

Diplomatically, Mr Orban fell into line with EU support for Kyiv despite his longstanding closeness to Putin.

09:54 AM

Pictured: Inside the Mariupol theatre destroyed by Russia

09:47 AM

Kremlin denies Ukrainian allegations its forces killed civilians near Kyiv

The Kremlin said on Monday it categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and said Ukrainian allegations on the matter should be treated with doubt.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they were investigating possible crimes by Russian forces after finding hundreds of bodies strewn around towns outside the capital Kyiv after the Russian withdrawal from the area.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the facts and chronology of the events in Bucha did not support Ukraine’s version of events and urged international leaders not to rush to judgment.

Mr Peskov said Russia’s diplomats would press on with their efforts to convene a UN Security Council meeting to discuss what Moscow has called “Ukrainian provocations” in Bucha despite their first effort to arrange such a meeting being blocked.

There is no evidence to support the Kremlin’s claims.

09:46 AM

HIV services ‘destroyed’ in Ukraine as crisis intensifies

HIV services in Ukraine have collapsed in many areas following the Russian invasion, a charity has said.

Ukraine has the second largest HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with more than 250,000 people living with HIV, or around one per cent of the population.

Treatment for people living with and affected by HIV in the city of Mariupol has completely broken down, according to Frontline AIDs and its Ukraine partner Alliance for Public Health (APH), and patients who managed to escape are in dire need of assistance.

Vital services are no longer being provided by APH in Mariupol, after a mobile HIV clinic was destroyed by shelling.

The charity said that an office belonging to Istok, a partner organisation of APH, was obliterated by a direct missile hit.

Frontline AIDS has now launched an appeal to support people living with and affected by HIV in Ukraine.

09:31 AM

Czechs send 250 soldiers to Slovakia to set up Nato battlegroup

A total of 250 Czech army paratroopers on Monday left for Slovakia, which neighbours war-ravaged Ukraine, to build a Nato battlegroup there, the defence ministry said.

The battlegroup will comprise up to 2,100 soldiers from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States.

The Czechs will be in command of the battlegroup.

“The key task of the mission is to declare the readiness, resolve and unity of Nato members in protecting the territorial integrity of the alliance,” said Colonel Tomas Unzeitig who will lead the battlegroup.

“This is an international Nato operation set to boost the defence capacities of the Slovak Army,” he added.

09:13 AM

Some Russian troops still in northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, governor says

Some Russian troops remained in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv on Monday after pulling back from around the region’s main city of Chernihiv, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Russia said last week it would sharply scale back military activity around Chernihiv and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

09:09 AM

Germany faces steep recession if Russian oil and gas halted, banks say

Germany will face a steep recession if there is a stop to imports or delivery of Russian gas and oil, a top German bank lobby warned on Monday.

Europe’s largest economy is heavily dependent upon Russia for energy, and nations banks echoed concerns over possible energy disruption expressed by big names in industry in recent days.

Christian Sewing, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said in his role as president of Germany’s BDB bank lobby that banks expected sharply slower growth this year of around 2 per cent due to the war in Ukraine.

“The situation would be even worse if imports or supplies of Russian oil and natural gas were to be halted. A significant recession in Germany would then be virtually unavoidable,” Mr Sewing told journalists.

09:07 AM

Ukraine ‘will rise again’, Boris Johnson says

09:01 AM

Eight dead in Russian shelling in south Ukraine

Eight people were killed and 34 wounded in recent Russian attacks on two towns in southern Ukraine, prosecutors in Kyiv said Monday, as the West warns Moscow of more sanctions over civilian killings.

“As a result of enemy shelling, seven residents of Ochakiv were killed and another 20 were injured. In the city of Mykolaiv one person died and 14 people were wounded, among them the child,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said in a statement referring to attacks on Sunday.

08:59 AM

Pictured: Ukrainian man bids his family farewell in Donbas region

08:50 AM

Spanish PM sees possible ‘genocide’ in Ukraine

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday he saw signs of a possible “genocide” in Ukraine after claims that Russian forces committed atrocities against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv.

“We will do everything to ensure that those who have perpetrated these war crimes do not go unpunished, and therefore appear before the courts… to deal with these alleged cases of [crimes against] humanity, war crimes and why not say it too, genocide,” he said.

“Putin’s unjustified aggression has brought war back to the gates of the European Union”, he told an economic forum in Madrid.

Mr Sanchez is one of the first European Union leaders to label Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “genocide”.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday also called for an international investigation into what he termed a “genocide” carried out by Russian troops in Ukraine.

08:50 AM

Truss to call for tougher sanctions against Russia in Poland visit

British foreign secretary Liz Truss will visit Poland on Monday to call for tougher action to tackle Russian aggression and to support Ukraine in peace talks, her office said in a statement.

“Putin is yet to show he is serious about diplomacy. A tough approach from the UK and our allies is vital to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in negotiations,” Ms Truss said.

08:13 AM

Polish PM calls for international probe into Ukraine ‘genocide’

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday called for an international investigation into what he termed a “genocide” carried out by Russian troops in Ukraine.

“We are proposing an international commission to investigate this crime of genocide,” he said, referring to the apparent killing of civilians in towns including Bucha near the capital Kyiv.

08:09 AM

Mass grave in Bucha captured in satellite images

A mass grave in Bucha has been captured in satellite images, following reports of torture and executions in the city formerly occupied by Russian forces.

The satellite images showed a 45-foot-long trench dug into the grounds of a church where a mass grave was found.

07:58 AM

Russia studying how to lure highly-skilled workers back from abroad, ministry says

Moscow is studying what extra incentives it needs to offer highly skilled Russian expatriates to persuade them to return home, the Industry and Trade Ministry said on Monday.

Russia has a reputation for producing world-class engineers and other technical specialists, but has for years been trying to counter an exodus of its brightest scientists.

Moreover, Moscow’s war in Ukraine has prompted thousands of Russians who oppose the conflict and want to avoid seeing their living standards slip under Western sanctions to leave the country.

Alexander Sergeyev, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke last week of a large brain drain under Western sanctions – imposed in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and significantly toughened since February.

Russia has had a repatriation programme for skilled workers since 2007.

“The further development of this programme and additional benefits to attract highly qualified Russian specialists from different spheres is being discussed,” the ministry said, without elaborating on what the benefits might be.

07:56 AM

‘UK will help Ukraine in any way we possibly can’, minister says

Britain will help Ukraine with military aid in any way “we possibly can”, Simon Hart said this morning.

The Wales Secretary said the UK will be responsive to new requests from the Ukrainian government.

“It is providing the kind of defensive weaponry that we have already done in greater numbers… so it is increasing as far as it is reasonable to do so all of the aid that we have so far given,” he said.

“But also making sure that when Ukraine comes to us and says actually we need a slightly nuanced version of it, we need a different sort of defensive weapon, to make sure if we can, if we physically can, if we possibly can, we either provide the financial support or the actual support to be able to provide that.”

Follow the latest politics developments on our dedicated live blog.

07:54 AM

Germany is the main roadblock for tougher Russian sanctions, Poland’s PM says

Germany is the main roadblock to imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday during a news conference, adding that Hungary was not blocking them.

His comment comes after Prime Minister Viktor Orban won a national election on Sunday after facing criticism over an insufficiently tough stance on Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“We have to see that, regardless of how we approach Hungary, this is the fourth such win and we have to respect democratic elections… it’s Germany that is the main roadblock on sanctions. Hungary is for the sanctions,” Mr Morawiecki said.

07:16 AM

Your morning briefing

Good morning. Here are the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war to get you up to speed.

1. Russia accuses US of propaganda over Bucha dead

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday that footage of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha had been “ordered” by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia.

2. Boris Johnson: ‘We will not rest until justice is served’

The Prime Minister will this week seek to galvanise a tough response from allies to the crisis in Ukraine.

3. Volodymyr Zelensky calls for support at Grammys

The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a surprise video appearance at the music industry’s star-studded Grammy Awards celebration in Las Vegas on Sunday and appealed to viewers to support his country “in any way you can”.

4. ‘Too early’ for Putin-Zelensky meeting

Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said it is too early for top-level peace talks between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

5. Wagner Group mercenaries target Donbas region

In its latest briefing, the Ministry of Defence said that Russian troops, including mercenaries from the Russian state-linked Wagner private military company, are being moved into the Donbas.

06:59 AM

Hungary’s PM names Zelensky among his ‘opponents’

Viktor Orban, the pro-Putin prime minister of Hungary, named Volodymyr Zelensky among his “opponents” as he celebrated re-election on Sunday night, reports Tom Ough.

Mr Orban, 58, said: “We will remember this victory until the end of our lives because we had to fight against a huge amount of opponents.”

Among those opponents, Mr Orban said, were the Hungarian left, Brussels bureaucrats and “the Ukrainian president.”

Mr Orban, who has presided over a curtailing of press freedom and judicial independence, has a long history of cosying up to Vladimir Putin. He has welcomed Ukrainian refugees, but he has resisted sanctioning of Russian energy, which Hungary is reliant on. “We have to stay out of it,” Mr Orban said of the war last night.

He was singled out by Volodomyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian president’s address to EU leaders on March 24. “Listen, Viktor, do you know what’s going on in Mariupol?” asked Zelensky.

06:57 AM

New sanctions on Russia needed after killings in Bucha, Macron says

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that more sanctions on Russia were needed after Ukraine accused Russian forces of the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Mr Macron told France Inter radio that there were “very clear clues” indicating that Russian forces were responsible for war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia on Sunday denied its forces were responsible for the deaths of civilians in the town of Bucha and said Ukraine had staged a performance for the Western media.

06:52 AM

Pictured: Remains of Russian aircraft hit by Ukrainian forces

06:28 AM

Slovakia will stay united with EU against Russian gas payment demands, PM says

Slovakia will act in unison with the European Union against Russia’s gas payments demands, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said after a minister raised the option of paying in roubles if necessary to keep gas flowing.

Slovakia is highly reliant on Russia for gas supplies and Moscow has demanded payment in roubles. However, the European Commission said on Friday that European companies whose supply contracts stipulate payment in euros or dollars should not meet this demand.

“In this situation, unity is key and we insist on respecting contract conditions and payments in euros,” Mr Heger said in a Facebook post late on Sunday.

His comments came after Economy Minister Richard Sulik said the country would work together with Europe but that Slovakia could not be cut off from Russian gas flows and if it had to pay in roubles it would.

06:27 AM

The latest pictures from Ukraine

06:07 AM

Ukraine’s agriculture minister warns over global prices

Ukraine’s agriculture minister said on Monday he expects “quite a large harvest” this year and hopes Ukraine will be able to export grain, but warned that continuation of the war would mean higher prices for all countries.

The minister, Mykola Solskyi, said the situation was “difficult” with fuel, which is needed for spring fields.

06:03 AM

Russia claims footage in Ukraine’s Bucha was ‘ordered’ to blame Russia

Russia’s foreign ministry said that footage of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha had been “ordered” by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia.

“Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and Nato,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview on state television late on Sunday.

Ms Zakharova said the immediate Western outcry over the images of dead civilians indicated the story had been part of a plan to sully Russia’s reputation.

“In this case, it seems to me that the fact that these statements [about Russia] were made in the first minutes after these materials appeared leaves no doubt as to who ‘ordered’ this story.”

05:24 AM

Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes

Ukrainian authorities are investigating possible war crimes after finding hundreds of bodies strewn around towns near Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew to refocus their attacks in other parts of the country.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, will this week seek to galvanise a tough response from allies to the crisis in Ukraine as Russia is accused of massacring civilians, with scenes akin to a “horror movie”.

On its 73rd anniversary, Mr Johnson will hail Nato as the “greatest security alliance in the history of the world” – adding that it has a responsibility to support Ukrainians as they fight for freedom with “every fibre of their being”.

The PM condemned Russia’s “despicable attacks” against civilians in Irpin and Bucha, adding that “we will not rest until justice is served”.

Russia’s defence ministry said photographs and videos published by Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” by troops in Bucha were a “provocation” and no resident of Bucha suffered violence at the hands of Russians.

Mr Johnson said “no denial or disinformation from the Kremlin” can conceal that President Vladimir Putin is “desperate” and “his invasion is failing”.

05:03 AM

Russian troops refocus their offensive into Donbas region

04:46 AM

Towns reclaimed in Chernihiv region, humanitarian effort underway

Ukraine has reclaimed control of some towns in the city of Chernihiv and humanitarian aid is currently being delivered.

The city is located about 80 miles north of Kyiv and it had been cut off from shipments of food and other supplies for weeks.

The road between Chernihiv and the capital of Kyiv is set to reopen to some traffic later on Monday, news agency RBK Ukraina reported.

The mayor said on Sunday that relentless Russian shelling had destroyed 70 per cent of the city.

04:29 AM

Zelensky calls Russian troops ‘murderers’ amid war crime accusations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky labelled Russian soldiers “murderers, torturers, rapists, looters” on Monday after dozens of bodies were found near Kyiv, triggering global outrage and allegations of war crimes.

Zelensky gave a scathing nightly video message, warning “concentrated evil has come to our land”.

Speaking in Ukrainian, he described Russian troops as “murderers, torturers, rapists, looters, who call themselves the army and who deserve only death after what they did”.

He then switched to Russian and said: “I want every mother of every Russian soldier to see the bodies of the killed people in Bucha, in Irpin, in Hostomel”.

Russia has denied allegations of war crimes.

03:46 AM

Russia calls for special UN meeting to address war crimes claim

Moscow has called for a special UN Security Council meeting on Monday to address claims that Russian troops committed war crimes against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv.

“In the light of heinous provocation of Ukrainian radicals in Bucha, Russia requested a meeting of UN Security Council on Monday April 4,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday on Twitter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed Moscow for the “killings” of hundreds civilians.

But Russia has denied the accusations and claimed Kyiv staged footage of the corpses.

03:13 AM

Calls for UK to build its green economy to eliminate Russian fuel

The International Trade Secretary is set to call for the UK to build its green economy to “eliminate Russian fuel from our energy mix once and for all”.

During her visit to Norway, Anne-Marie Trevelyan is expected to declare the UK must first use its relationships with “reliable energy partners” , but also invest in more sustainable sources which would be out of the “malign reach” of Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused turmoil in global energy markets.

02:39 AM

Volodymyr Zelensky in Grammy Awards appearance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeared in a video aired at the Grammy Awards in the United States and appealed to viewers to support Ukrainians “in any way you can”.

“What is more opposite to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed people,” said Mr Zelensky in the video that aired ahead of a performance by American singer John Legend and Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuck.

Mr Zelensky said in English, his voice hoarse: “Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today, to tell our story. Support us in any way you can. Any, but not silence.”

02:26 AM

Russian troops shot resident ‘all over’

Russian troops rolled into Bucha in the early days of the invasion and stayed up to March 30. With those forces gone, residents are now giving harrowing accounts of soldiers shooting and killing civilians without reason.

One resident said Russian troops took people out of basements where they were hiding. They checked phones for evidence of anti-Russian activity and took them away or shot them.

Hanna Herega, another resident, said Russians started shooting at a neighbour who had gone out to gather wood for heating.

“They hit him a bit above the heel, crushing the bone, and he fell,” Ms Herega said. “Then they shot off his left leg completely, with the boot. Then they shot him all over.”

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, described bodies in the streets of the suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel as well as Bucha as a “scene from a horror movie”.

He alleged that some of the women found dead had been raped before being killed and the Russians then burned the bodies.

“This is genocide,” Mr Zelenskyy told CBS’ Face the Nation programme on Sunday.

02:16 AM

Explosions continue to rock Odesa

Explosions were heard in the early hours of Monday in the cities of Kherson and Odesa, in the south, while air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine’s east.

Missiles struck near Odesa on Sunday, with Russia saying it had destroyed an oil refinery used by the Ukrainian military. The Odesa city council said “critical infrastructure facilities” were hit.

There was little sign of a breakthrough in efforts to negotiate an end to the war, although Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said talks were due to resume on Monday via videoconference.

02:10 AM

European officials call for war crimes probe

Satellite images show a 45ft-long trench dug into the grounds of a Ukrainian church where a mass grave was found this week.

Pictures of the destruction and apparent violence towards civilians has sparked widespread condemnation of Russia and leader Vladimir Putin.

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the images as “a punch in the gut”

• United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation

• “Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that Western allies would agree on further sanctions in coming days

• Human Rights Watch said it had documented “several cases of Russian military forces committing laws-of-war violations” in the Ukrainian regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv

Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the International Criminal Court to collect evidence of what he called Russian war crimes. British and French foreign ministers said their countries would support such probes.

However, legal experts say a prosecution of Putin or other Russian leaders would face high hurdles and could take years.

Russia has denied targeting civilians and rejected allegations of war crimes.

12:01 AM

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