April 6, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Pope Francis has condemned the killing of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha by the Russian military and renewed his call for an end to the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at his Wednesday general audience at the Vatican, the Pope appealed for an end to the “atrocities” seen in Bucha, where the bodies of civilians were found strewn across the streets.

Russia has repeatedly denied the alleged atrocities, despite increasing evidence suggesting otherwise. Responding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's accusations at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia called the claims against the Russian military "ungrounded."

Pontiff joined by group of Ukrainian children refugees: The Pope proceeded to unfurl a Ukrainian flag, which he said “came from the martyred city of Bucha,” and kiss it. The move was received with wide applause from the audience.

Francis then invited a group of about a dozen Ukrainian children, who are now refugees in Italy, to come up on the stage with him.

“These children had to flee, and have come to a strange land. This is one of the fruits of war. Let us not forget them, and let us not forget the Ukrainian people,” he said.

Francis also strongly criticized failures by international organizations to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Some background: While the Pope has not yet visited Ukraine amid Russia's invasion, he told journalists on April 2 that a trip "is on the table."

Francis' comments at his general audience on Wednesday echoed his previous shows of support for Ukrainian refugees and calls for an end to the war.

On March 19, Francis visited 19 Ukrainian refugee children at the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital in Rome, Italy. They were receiving treatment for oncological and neurological diseases among others, as well as severe injuries from blasts, Vatican Press Director Matteo Bruni said at the time.

"Enough. Stop. Let the weapons fall silent. Negotiate seriously for peace," Francis said at the end of March, during his weekly Angelus address.

"War cannot be something that is inevitable. We cannot get used to war," he added.

China has a "special responsibility" to uphold international peace and not "undermine" sanctions against Russia, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels, von der Leyen said the European Union expects "the rest of the world to take a clear stance against Putin's war of choice." 

She added that the bloc has sent a message to China calling for sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU to be respected, or at the least, not to be circumvented and undermined.

She warned that the "war that Russia has unleashed" is "not limited to Europe" and will define how violations of international law are treated in the future.

"China has to take a clear stance on that," she added.

Some context: Von der Leyen said Wednesday that the EU would be placing further sanctions on Russia, likely on gas and oil.

The announcement came a day after the EU revealed its plans to impose a fifth wave of sanctions on Russia, including an import ban on Russian coal.

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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced 11 evacuation routes had been agreed upon with Russia on Wednesday.

In the southeastern region of Ukraine, she said the corridors open would be:

Evacuation attempts stalled: Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Monday his city was "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe," with more than 100,000 people still requiring evacuation.

Bus convoys for evacuating civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol have not been able to reach the city, and aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were detained in Russian-held territory while attempting to evacuate desperate residents of Mariupol, a spokesperson told CNN Tuesday.

Vereshchuk announced the ICRC team's release in a statement posted to Telegram earlier on Tuesday, remarking that "despite the promises of their leadership, the [Russian] occupying forces do not allow anyone to go to Mariupol."

They were later released after negotiations, Vereshchuk added.

Meanwhile, the eastern region of Luhansk has seen intense fighting, with settlements coming under heavy shelling. According to Vereshchuk, the corridors open Wednesday in the Luhansk region are:

Greece has announced it is removing 12 Russian diplomats.

"The Greek authorities have declared 12 members of the diplomatic and consular missions of the Russian Federation accredited in Greece as personae non gratae," the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a press release Wednesday.

The Russian Ambassador in Greece was informed earlier today about this decision, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Estonia, Denmark and Latvia all announced Tuesday that they would expel Russian diplomats and staff members from their respective territories.

The Russian military announced a series of strikes around Ukraine targeting what they described as fuel storage and supply bases around the country.

"On the morning of April 6, high-precision air- and ground-based missiles destroyed five bases for storing fuel and lubricants in the areas of the settlements of Radekhiv [Lviv region], Kozyatyn [Vinnytsia region], Prosiana [Dnipropetrovsk region], Mykolaiv and Novomoskovsk [Dnipropetrovsk region]," Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Wednesday.

Konashenkov claimed those installations provided fuel to Ukrainian troops in the areas of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv and in the Donbas region of Ukraine's east.

Some context: Ukrainian officials earlier confirmed strikes and explosions overnight in several regions, including in the Lviv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

A fuel depot in east-central Ukraine was destroyed in a Russian airstrike overnight, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. 

Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Saturday interrupted rail service and sparked a fire in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the office of Ukraine's Prosecutor General said a criminal investigation has been opened into the attack.

There were no military facilities on the territory of the railway hub, the statement added.

The Russian column of tanks and armored personnel carriers sped along a residential street in Bucha, a tree-lined suburb of the capital Kyiv. That was February 27th.

A short time later, that same line of vehicles lay in ruins, the wreckage smoldering, after being ambushed by Ukrainian forces.

There was no sign of the column's soldiers. In a video showing the destruction, a man could be heard muttering: "I wish you all to burn in hell."

But that Ukrainian victory was to be short-lived; a month-long occupation of Bucha by Russian forces followed.

The suburb's name has this week become a byword for war crimes, after accounts of summary executions, brutality and indiscriminate shelling emerged in the wake of Russia's hasty retreat, as the Kremlin shifts its focus away from the Ukrainian capital to the country's east.

Devastation mirrors incidents across the country: In recent days, Moscow has claimed -- without evidence -- that the atrocities in Bucha were staged -- calling it "fake," and part of a "planned media campaign."

But witnesses who spoke to CNN said the carnage in the town began weeks ago.

And the devastation there bears similarities to Russia's playbook in other towns and cities in Ukraine, where officials say civilian infrastructure has come under attack -- with power supplies knocked out, water cut off and communications towers damaged -- making it harder for local residents to hold out against Russian troops. But Ukraine has not surrendered.

There have also been reports of looting, disappearances, and evidence of the indiscriminate killings of civilians since the war began.

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The European Union will place further sanctions on Russia, likely on gas and oil, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

"At this critical point in the war we must increase the pressure on Putin again,” von der Leyen said in an address to the European Parliament in Brussels.

On Tuesday, the EU announced its plans to impose a fifth package of sanctions on Russia including an import ban on Russian coal.

The EU also needs to look at the "revenues that Russia gets from fossil fuels," she added.

Her remarks were echoed by European Council chief Charles Michel in a tweet Wednesday, saying that EU "measures on oil, and even gas will also be needed sooner or later."

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Explosions were reported late Tuesday in the Radekhiv area of Lviv region in western Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

A fire followed the explosion and was immediately extinguished by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Kozytskyi said. No casualties were reported.

Air Command West of the Ukrainian Air Force also issued a statement on Wednesday saying two Russian cruise missiles were downed Tuesday night in the Lviv region.

"Last night, the occupiers' fighter jets flying from Belarus hit the territory of Ukraine with cruise missiles," the statement read. "Ruscists [Russian fascists] were aiming for civil infrastructure objects of Lviv region. But due to the successful actions of the anti-aircraft missile forces of Air Command West, two cruise missiles were destroyed, making it impossible for the enemy missiles to hit the target."

Recent advances by Russian forces in Kharkiv could be setting the stage for the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk to become the next target of Russia's offensive, according to a report issued Monday by military experts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank tracking the conflict. 

Russian forces withdrawn from the northern Kyiv region are likely a "spent force" and "unlikely to be effective elsewhere," despite efforts to redeploy them, the report said.

Russian efforts to generate reserves and replace officer casualties continue to face serious challenges, it also said, citing the Ukrainian General Staff.