April 4, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies show the bodies of dead civilians in Bucha had been laying in the street for weeks, including when the town was under Russian control.

The New York Times first published the images on Monday.

Disturbing video showing the bodies in Bucha was geolocated, authenticated and reported on by CNN on Friday. It came to light the same day Ukraine declared the town liberated from Russian troops.

In response to the footage of Bucha on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed the video was "fake" and "staged." It said the video, photos, and the allegations of war crimes were "another provocation."

But the satellite images refute that claim from the Russians: Objects seen in Yablunska street on the satellite images match the exact locations that bodies are seen in the street in the video. The satellite images show the bodies were on the street in southern Bucha since at least March 18, when Russia was in control of the town. Russia held Bucha until March 31.

CNN has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

A group of eleven Ukrainian city mayors continue to be held captive by Russian forces, Ukraine's deputy prime minister reiterated on Monday.

“Unfortunately, so far, we have not been able to get in touch, or to free any other city mayors, and we don't even know, we think that some of them were killed," she said, speaking via a translator.

On Sunday, in a message posted to social media, Vereshchuk said that 11 local mayors from Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and the Donetsk regions "are in Russian captivity." CNN could not independently verify those claims. Russian forces have detained local government officials in a number of instances around Ukraine.

As photos of civilian bodies lining a street in Bucha have quickly become the indelible images of the conflict, Vereshchuk feared further violence.

“If we do not stop Putin today, together, this is only the beginning of those atrocities that we will reveal later on. Because as we are talking now with you, there are ... more than 100,000 civilians, women, children, elderly, who are dying in the city of Mariupol at the moment,” she said.  

“People are dying, they are dying of hunger, thirst, severe wounds, airstrikes, thousands of them are being killed. It is a genocide, against the Ukrainian civilians. And Putin, he realizes that he cannot stop the Ukrainian army, and that’s why he has another tactic. He is torturing and raping Ukrainian civilians, women, and this is what's his so-called second army is doing. They are fighting against the civilians, and we seem to just be watching powerless against them.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the United Nations Security Council Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the president of the Security Council confirmed to CNN. 

The address will take place during the council’s 10 a.m. ET briefing on Ukraine, Mungo Woodifield confirmed to CNN.

The number of civilian casualties may be much higher in Borodyanka and other liberated Ukrainian cities than Bucha, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday. 

In Bucha, Zelensky said there were more than 300 people killed, but that the total number of casualties will likely increase as the whole city is checked.  

Zelensky underscored the importance of journalists documenting the aftermath in liberated Ukrainian cities. 

“We provide maximum access for journalists to Bucha and other liberated cities of Ukraine. For hundreds of journalists from around the world. And we are interested in having thousands of journalists there. As many as possible! For the world to see what Russia has done,” he said. 

Zelensky cautioned that Russia will try to cover up the traces of violence committed in Bucha and other cities. 

“They are trying to distort the facts. But, as then, they will not succeed. They will not be able to deceive the whole world,” Zelensky said. 

Zelensky repeated his plea to be sent more weapons to fight Russian forces.

“I emphasize once again: Ukraine must get all the necessary weapons to drive the occupiers out of our land as soon as possible, to liberate our cities. And if we had already got what we needed - all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile and anti-ship weapons, we could have saved thousands of people,” he said. 

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is the most-dramatic event since World war II.

The biggest question, Yatsenyuk said, is what ultimately happens to Putin and his army.

“How to bring to justice personally Putin and every single commander in the chain, and every soldier who committed these atrocities against the Ukrainian people,” he detailed.

Though the Russian president currently appears to be acting free of any recourse, Yatsenyuk predicted Putin’s reign will end in failure.  

“I still believe that Putin will lose this war … This is the war against the free world. This is the war against actually every human being. This is the war against freedom,” he told Tapper. “He is to lose this war but we need to prepare right now … I believe we need to urgently launch a kind of joint-investigative group in order to be prepared to bring to justice Putin, and to see Putin sitting behind the bars.”

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in an interview with CNN on Monday that Russia is "definitely" committing war crimes in Ukraine.

"I believe that [the] Kremlin has been ordering all of this war machinery into these crimes against unarmed civilians," Kurti said, adding that Vladimir Putin should face an international tribunal. 

The prime minister also said Kosovo is bolstering its defense budget and capabilities in case of Russian interference or spillover conflict in the Western Balkans. 

A CNN team at a crossroads just south of Mykolaiv, near the town of Oleksandrivka, was just meters away from incoming artillery rounds on Monday, leaving their vehicle destroyed.

The team managed to leave moments later, experiencing what regular Ukrainians are living daily during this war.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman, producer Kareem Khadder, photojournalist John Torigoe, translator Valeriia Dubrovska and their team had stopped at the crossroads to speak with a few Ukrainian soldiers who were behind a berm. As Wedeman was filming a standup wearing full body armor, they witnessed a "very large incoming round impact uncomfortably nearby and took cover." The impact was about 150 meters away from their location. 

The team hit the ground as another round came in.  

The team ran to their other vehicle, which also had damage due to shrapnel, got in and drove off.  

None of the CNN team was injured.

Russia's bombardment of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea continued on Monday as it has for weeks, with strikes through the morning and afternoon there.  

Last Tuesday, more than 31 were killed following a Russian strike on the office of the regional military governor of Mykolaiv.

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Shipments from the $800 million security assistance package for Ukraine from the US arrived “over the course of the weekend,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing on Monday. One package is arriving “in the next 24 hours,” Kirby added.

“We’re prioritizing the kinds of capabilities in those shipments that we know Ukrainians need the most: Javelins, stingers, UAVs, so all of that is being prioritized,” Kirby said.

The Department of Defense announced another $300 million package of “additional assistance activities under authority provided by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI),” on Friday, according to a DoD release.

Kirby said the $300 million package, which will have to be bought from contractors and is not coming from US stockpiles, is just “another tool in the toolbox” to help Ukraine.

“That we’re applying USAI is just another tool in the toolbox, it does not connote some sort of shortage that effects US readiness at this stage,” Kirby said.

City officials in Tijuana, Mexico, have opened a sports complex to house the overflow of Ukrainian migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border in search of asylum in the United States.

Enrique Lucero Vazquez, the director of Tijuana’s immigration services, says that about 2,000 Ukrainians are currently in Tijuana — both near the border crossing with the United States, and at the “Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez” sports complex.

In recent years, the facility has been used to house the Central American caravans arriving in Tijuana.

Vazquez says in January and February, an estimated 10,000 Ukrainians and 25,000 Russians arrived in Mexico, mostly by plane and with tourist visas.

After Russia attacked Ukraine, some Ukrainians started making their way to Tijuana to seek US asylum, said Vazquez.

The sports complex that was opened to house Ukrainians has a capacity of about 500 people and features showers, bathrooms, and internet access. Food, meanwhile, is being provided by non-profit US organizations.

Vazquez says that at present, between 300 and 400 Ukrainians are being processed by US immigration authorities each day.

According to Vazquez, about 3,000 migrants from other nationalities are in Tijuana’s 25 shelters waiting for Title 42 to lift. About 1,500 of those are from Central America and Haiti, and the other half are mostly Mexican nationals, Vazquez says.