The Chinese government said the images of Bucha are “deeply disturbing”
Chinese authorities considered this Wednesday that the images of the corpses in the Ukrainian city of Bucha are “deeply disturbing” and they requested that the results of the investigations be delivered to determine responsibility for the act.
“The reports and images of civilians killed in Bucha are deeply disturbing,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
“Any accusation must be supported by facts” and we must not “mix the humanitarian situation with politics”added the spokesman.
Russia has denied any responsibility for the Bucha massacres and accused kyiv of fabricating false images. The United States called for those responsible for war crimes to be brought to justice.
“All parties should show restraint and avoid groundless accusations before the investigation results are released,” the Chinese spokesman said.
The United Nations recorded 1,480 civilian deaths in the war.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded that 1,480 civilians died in the war in Ukraine and that there are at least 2,195 wounded.
According to the UN, among the dead there are 331 men, 211 women, 22 girls and 40 boys. In addition, there are another 61 children and 815 adults who have not yet been identified.
The highest death toll was recorded in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.the two self-proclaimed sovereign republics recognized by Russia, where 474 people have died and 1,065 were injured.
While in other regions of Ukraine (Cherkasy, Chernigov, Kharkov, Kherson, kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomir), which were under the control of the Ukrainian government when the casualties occurred, 1,006 deaths were recorded and 1,130 wounded.
The majority of recorded civilian casualties were due to explosive weapon injuries with a wide impact areaincluding heavy artillery shelling and multiple rocket launch systems, as well as air and missile strikes, according to the UN, although they estimate the true figures to be higher.
Shelling was recorded in Severodonetsk
This Wednesday bombings were recorded on the industrial city of Severodonetsk, located in the self-proclaimed Luhansk Republic and that is now controlled by the Ukrainian army.
A UN humanitarian convoy with eight trucks managed to reach this city with humanitarian rations, flour and warm clothing for some 17,000 people, in addition to four electric generators for its hospitals.
The Russian military has said in recent days that it wants to focus its efforts on eastern Ukraine, including the Lugansk region, where Severodonetsk is located.
The region’s governor, Sergei Gaidai, said on social media that one person was killed in a shelling in the neighboring town of Rubizhne on Tuesday, five were injured and seven were “extracted from the rubble.”
Pope Francis regretted the “new atrocities” committed in the war
Pope Francis regretted the “new atrocities” committed in the war in Ukraineas the bucha massacre. the pontiff received Ukrainian refugee children and stressed the “impotence of the United Nations Organization” before the war conflict.
“The recent news about the war in Ukraine, rather than bringing relief and hope, instead show new atrocities, such as the Bucha massacre,” he denounced.
For the Pope, the war shows “increasingly horrendous cruelties committed against defenseless civilians, women and children“, who “they are victims, and his innocent blood cries out to heaven and implores an end to this war, that the weapons be silenced, that they stop sowing blood and destruction”.
Francis unfurled a Ukrainian flag that was given to him by a friend of his. “This flag comes from the war, from that martyred city, Bucha,” the pontiff explained.
“There are also some boys from Ukraine who are accompanying us. Let’s greet them and pray with them. These children must have escaped and arrived in a strange land,” he comforted them before giving an Easter egg to each of the seven children who, with Two adults accompanied him on stage.
“This is one of the fruits of war, let’s not forget them and let’s not forget the Ukrainian people. It is hard to be eradicated from one’s own land by a war,” the pontiff lamented.
Earlier, during his weekly catechesis, the Pope had lamented the “impotence of the United Nations Organization” in the face of the conflict.
“Today we often talk about geopolitics, but unfortunately the dominant logic is that of the strategies of the most powerful states to assert their interests expanding the area of economic, ideological and military influence,” he added.
A man crashed into the Russian embassy in Romania and died
A man has died after his car crashed into the gate of the Russian embassy in Romania. They investigate whether it was an accident or a deliberate attack.
“Until now we cannot say that this act is linked to anything other than the personal circumstances of the driver,” Romanian prosecutor Bogdan Staicu told reporters.
However the Russian Investigative Committeewhich deals with serious crimes, assured that “it has been reported that it was not an accident, but a planned incident against the Russian representation”.
The Romanian media assure that the man directed an NGO for the defense of parents, and that yesterday he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse of his minor daughter.
But in his latest Facebook post, two days before his death, the man wrote: “I am Ukrainian too”. “We should all consider ourselves Ukrainians until this horrible war is over,” he added.
The Russian embassy building in Bucharest has been protected by police barriers since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Italy to seek to reduce Russian gas imports
The Italian Government will seek in the coming months reduce its current gas purchases from Russiasome 29,000 million cubic meters per year“for humanitarian and political reasons” linked to the war in Ukraine.
“We must replace as soon as possible the 29,000 million cubic meters of gas that Russia supplies us every year for humanitarian and political reasons,” said the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani.
“We are dealing with this full time, we are advanced,” said Cingolani about the plan of the Executive of Mario Draghi to diversify its supply of fuel among four or five countries so as not to have “a single interlocutor, which is Russia”.
“The blame is linked to the mistakes of the past, for not having exploited our natural resources but also for having said no to any type of energy alternative. We hope that this lesson will help us to expand energy diversification,” he said.
The West anticipates new sanctions against Russia
Western countries plan to announce new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday after the discovery of dead bodies of civilians scattered in the streets of Bucha. a town near the Ukrainian capital that was occupied by Russian troops for weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky yesterday reiterated his call for Russian war crimes perpetrators to be brought to justice, while warning that Russian forces are regrouping to launch more attacks in the east and south of the country.