WAR IN UKRAINE: April 7, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 43
In an unprecedented move, Russia is suspended from the UN Human Rights Council over alleged war crimes after a vote in New York. It signals the further isolation of Russia from the international community
The total civilian death toll in the Ukrainian side from conflict-related civilian deaths since 2014 is now around 5,000. Using figures provided by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were at least 3,404 civilian deaths in E. Ukraine up until the end of December, 2021. And in the current ongoing conflict, the UN body has recorded 1,563 civilian casualties. However civilian casualty figures are expected to be much higher taking into account the discovery of mass graves and people found in liberated areas.
In an apparent effort to cover their tracks, Russian forces are using mobile crematoriums to burn the bodies of Ukrainian civilians, according to Toma Istomina, the deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Independent. “We've found more and more evidence of Russia’s atrocities in Bucha & other villages in Kyiv Oblast…Today we found out that Russians are starting to erase evidence of their war crimes in Mariupol,” she said in a Twitter Spaces panel hosted by me Wednesday evening.
The US and EU announced a new wave of sanctions against the Russian Federation and Mr. Putin’s inner circle however they appear largely ineffective at deterring further Russian aggression. The White House announced new sanctions on Russia's largest financial institutions and number of individuals tied to the Kremlin, including Putin's two adult daughters. Meanwhile, the UK also announced sanctions on Russia’s Sberbank and eight individuals linked to key Russian industries. “I don't think any sanctions that are short of something really dramatic out of the EU is going to make much of a difference there,” Frank Langfitt of NPR said in the Twitter Spaces panel Wednesday evening.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, delivered one of the most impassioned and articulate responses of his career to a press conference at NATO headquarters. In it he said: “Bucha is just the tip of the iceberg. Mariupol will be much, much worse.” He also said that help from western partners came much too late for Ukraine to properly fight off Russian aggression.
A Boston Consulting Group survey, released this week, found that two-thirds of investors expected it would take at least two years before western companies were willing to operate in Russia again, including 39 per cent that said it would be five years or more - Financial Times.
In Vilnius, Lithuania, protesters lay on the pavement next to the German Embassy to protest Berlin’s stance on Russian sanctions. A separate protest next to the Russian Embassy saw people swim in a pond with red dyes to symbolise the blood of Ukrainians killed in the war.
CNN's Brianna Keilar speaks to Michael Bociurkiw about the war in Ukraine and the atrocities found after Russian forces departed some of the regions