Ukraine: Germany′s Scholz vows response over Bucha deaths — live updates | News | DW

• Images reveal mass graves and bodies lining streets in towns outside Kyiv
• Residents say departing Russian troops are killing civilians
• Ukraine’s foreign minister calls massacre of civilians in Bucha ‘deliberate’
• Germany, France, US, NATO chief condemn Bucha deaths
• A Red Cross evacuation mission hopes to reach Mariupol later on Sunday

This article was last updated at 17:22 GMT/UTC.

Scholz: More sanctions on Russia in coming days

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Western allies would agree on further sanctions on Russia in the coming days over its invasion of Ukraine and the “atrocities” committed by Russian troops in a town near Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir “Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences” of their actions, he said in a statement to reporters in the chancellery.

“And we will continue to make weapons available to Ukraine so the country can defend itself against the Russian invasion.”

On Saturday, hundreds of bodies of civilians were found in the town of Bucha, hours after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied killing civilians, saying that photos and videos of corpses strewn across the streets were “another production of the Kyiv regime for the Western media.”

“During the time this settlement was under the control of Russian armed forces, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions,” the ministry said in a statement.

Berlin rejects Ukraine’s plea for infantry vehicles

Ukraine will not receive any German Marder infantry vehicles, which it has requested from Berlin, Die Welt has reported.

The newspaper said Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had rejected the demand.

Citing the Defense Ministry, the paper said that Germany’s armored personnel carriers were bound by NATO obligations.

Any decision on “disengagement” would therefore have to be decided within the framework of the alliance.

Kyiv requested the transfer of 100 Marder infantry vehicles and other heavy weapons last week.

Ukraine last week put in a request for 100 Marder infantry vehicles from Germany

Lambrecht: EU must discuss ban on Russian gas

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has called on the European Union to discuss a ban on Russian gas imports after reports emerged of Russian forces committing atrocities near Kyiv.

“Such crimes must not remain without a response,” she told public broadcaster ARD’s Report from Berlin, in reference to the reported discovery of mass graves in the town of Bucha.

Lambrecht said a joint response was the EU’s “strength.” Rather than “individual countries that pushed ahead, we agreed with each other on what is sustainable.”

The minister also promised more military deliveries to Ukraine and said she was skeptical as to whether Moscow would uphold any future peace deal.

“We have seen how people lied, how we were deceived, how promises and commitments were not kept. And that’s why I’m very hesitant, very skeptical,” she said.

Despite her call for a review of gas imports, Germany remains heavily reliant on energy supplies from Russia. 

Berlin said last week that the earliest it could wean itself of Russian natural gas is mid-2024.

Fresh blast near Russian city of Belgorod

A fresh explosion has been reported near the southern Russian city of Belgorod, where two days ago Moscw said Ukraine carried out air strikes on an oil depot.

“There was a bang, debris fell to the ground,” the head of the Yakovlevsky district administration, Oleg Medvedev, wrote on a Telegram news channel on Sunday.

The cause of the new blast was not immediately clear.

Medvedev said noone was killed or injured and that the debris would be taken away and examined.

Reuters news agency cited two witnesses as saying that two new blasts had been heard.

One witness said they were so powerful that they rattled the windows of her home in Belgorod.

The city lies 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the joint border.

A blaze broke out Friday at a fuel depot in Belgorod, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine

Zelenskyy: Russia attempting to eliminate Ukraine through ‘genocide’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has committed “genocide” in his country and was attempting to eliminate the “whole nation.”

His comments to CBS program Face the Nation follow the discovery of mass graves in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.

Footage also emerged from the town showing what a Ukrainian official said were 280 civilians executed by Russian soldiers.

“We are citizens of Ukraine and we don’t want to be subdued to the policy of the Russian Federation. This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated,” Zelensky said, according to a transcript from the network.

“And this is happening in the Europe of the 21st century. So this is the torture of the whole nation,” he added.

Russia’s Defense Minister denied that its forces had killed civilians in Bucha, saying that the footage and photos were “yet another provocation.”

The ministry added that all Russian military units had left the town on March 30.

Macron condemns Russia’s ‘crimes’ in Bucha

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter that the images emerging from the town of Bucha outside Kyiv of dead civilians are “unbearable.”

“On the streets, hundreds of civilians cowardly murdered,” he wrote, in reference to reports from the Ukrainian town from which Russian forces recently withdrew.

“The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes,” Macron added. 

US to give Moldova $50 million in aid

The US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced during a visit to the capital, Chisinau, that the US would donate $50 million (€45.25 million) in aid to help Moldova cope with the spillover effects of the war in Ukraine.

Thomas-Greenfield said the funding would go towards programs, training and equipment for border management as well as efforts to counter human trafficking, promote accountability and transparency in the justice system and combat corruption and cybercrime.

The money is in addition to the $30 million the US announced last month for refugee relief over the next six months. 

The UN says almost 400,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their country through Moldova.

Ukraine says 11 regional politicians in Russian captivity

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 11 regional Ukrainian politicians are currently being held in Russian captivity. She added that the officials came from the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolayiv and Donetsk regions.

Vereshchuk said negotiations for a prisoner exchange were underway.

Ukrainian officials also said the mayor of the village of Motyshyn, Olha Suchenko, had been found dead in the greater Kyiv area along with her husband.

NATO chief Stoltenberg calls Bucha atrocities ‘horrific’

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the death of civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv, horrific.

Stoltenberg told CNN, “It is a brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for decades, and it’s horrific and it’s absolutely unacceptable.”

Russian forces left dead civilians on the streets when they retreated.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill calls for country to be defended

Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church held a service Sunday for Russian soldiers and called for them to defend their country “as only Russia can.”

At the ostentatious Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces in Kubinka outside Moscow, Patriarch Kirill said Russia was “peace-loving” and had suffered from war.

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill added, “We absolutely do not strive for war or to do anything that could harm others.”

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill held a service for the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accuses Russia of ‘crimes’

In a statement, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “I demand that international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross be given access to these areas in order to independently document the atrocities.”

He added, “These crimes committed by the Russian military must be relentlessly investigated.”

Of Bucha, Scholz said the footage of dead civilians in the streets was “terrible and horrifying.”

He reiterated his for a cease-fire and a cessation of fighting.

Blinken calls Bucha images ‘punch in the gut’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN the images of Ukrainian civilians bound and dead on the streets of the town of Bucha are a “punch in the gut.”

He added that economic sanctions “are having a big bite now.”

While it is too early to say whether Russian troops repositioning from Kyiv signals a withdrawal or a regrouping, Blinken said he believes Russia suffered a “strategic defeat” in Ukraine.

French foreign minister condemns Russia’s ‘massive abuses’

France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the Russian army’s “massive abuses” in Ukraine.

In a statement, he said such abuses constitute war crimes. 

Le Drian added that France would work with Ukraine and the International Criminal Court (ICC) towards the pursuit of justice for the perpetrators of such crimes. 

Greek foreign minister lands in Odesa

Nikos Dendias, the foreign minister of Greece, arrived in Odesa Sunday as part of a humanitarian mission to the Ukrainian port city.

Dendias also hopes to reopen the Greek consulate in the city.

Missiles hit Odesa in the early hours Sunday.

Ukraine’s foreign minister: Bucha ‘massacre was deliberate’

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said on Twitter that the massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha was “deliberate.”

He called for “devastating” new sanctions against Moscow, including an embargo on Russian energy, the closure of ports to Russian goods and trade, and disconnecting all Russian banks from the international banking system known as SWIFT.

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs quoted Kuleba on Twitter, “We are still gathering and looking for bodies, but the…