(LONDON) — Russian forces have executed civilians in Ukraine in apparent war crimes, Amnesty International said Thursday.
The London-based international human rights group published new testimony after conducting on-the-ground research in areas around Ukraine’s capital amid Russia’s invasion. Its report adds to a growing body of evidence that Russian troops have committed war crimes amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — a charge that U.S. and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly made, but that the Kremlin vehemently denies.
Amnesty International said its crisis response investigators interviewed more than 20 people from villages and towns near Kyiv, many of whom claimed to have witnessed or have had direct knowledge of Russian soldiers committing horrific acts of violence against unarmed civilians across the region.
“In recent weeks, we have gathered evidence that Russian forces have committed extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, which must be investigated as likely war crimes,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement Thursday. “Testimonies show that unarmed civilians in Ukraine are being killed in their homes and streets in acts of unspeakable cruelty and shocking brutality.”
The organization noted that deliberate killings of civilians, rape and torture, as well as inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, are human rights violations and war crimes, and that those who commit them should be held criminally responsible along with any superiors who knew or had reason to know about such atrocities but did not attempt to stop or punish the perpetrators.
The International Criminal Court, a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry and Ukraine’s prosecutor general have all opened investigations into possible war crimes by Russian forces. But the interviews conducted by Amnesty International and published Thursday provide a harrowing window into these kinds of attacks with grisly detail.
According to the report, one of the interviewees, 18-year-old Kateryna Tkachova, told Amnesty International that she was at home with her parents in the village of Vorzel, northwest of Kyiv, on March 3 when several tanks painted with the letter “Z,” which Russian forces have used to mark their vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine, rolled down their street. Tkachova said her mother and father, who were unarmed and dressed in civilian clothing, left the basement where they were hiding to go into the street, after telling her to stay put. Tkachova said she then heard gunshots.
“Once the tanks had passed by, I jumped over the fence to the neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if they’re alive,” Tkachova told Amnesty International. “I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road, and my father was face down on the other side of the street. I saw large holes in his coat. The next day I went to them. My father had six large holes in his back, my mother had a smaller hole in her chest.”
Seven days later, an unnamed volunteer assisting with evacuations from the areas around Kyiv helped Tkachova leave Vorzel. The volunteer told Amnesty International that he had seen the bodies of Tkachova’s parents lying in the street near her house, according to the report. Amnesty International said it has also verified video showing the volunteer and Tkachova writing her parents’ names, dates of birth and dates of death on a piece of cardboard before placing it beside their bodies, which were covered with blankets.
An unnamed 46-year-old woman told Amnesty International that Russian troops entered her village of Bohdanivka, southeast of Kyiv, on March 7 or 8. On the night of March 9, the woman said she heard gunshots through the downstairs windows of her home, where she lived with her husband, 10-year-old daughter and 81-year-old mother-in-law. She told Amnesty International that she and her husband shouted that they were civilians and that they were unarmed. When they came downstairs, two Russian soldiers pushed them and their daughter into the boiler room.
“They forced us in and slammed the door,” she told Amnesty International. “After just a minute they opened the door, they asked my husband if he had cigarettes. He said no, he hadn’t smoked for a couple of weeks. They shot him in his right arm. The other said, ‘Finish him,’ and they shot him in the head.”
“He didn’t die right away. From 9.30 p.m. to 4 a.m. he was still breathing, though he wasn’t conscious,” she added, according to Amnesty International. “Blood was flowing out of him. When he took his last breath, I turned to my daughter and said, ‘It seems daddy has died.'”
A neighbor told Amnesty International that they witnessed Russian soldiers breaking into the woman’s house that night and also confirmed seeing her husband’s body slumped in the corner of the boiler room. The woman and her child escaped from Bohdanivka later that day. The woman’s mother-in-law, who has limited mobility, was left behind, according to Amnesty International.
Another woman, from an unidentified village east of Kyiv, told Amnesty International that two Russian soldiers entered her house on March 9, killed her husband and then repeatedly raped her at gunpoint while her young son hid nearby in the boiler room, according to the report. The unnamed woman managed to escape from the village with her son and they fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“The intentional killing of civilians is a human rights violation and a war crime,” Callamard said. “These deaths must be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible must be prosecuted, including up the chain of command.”
Interviewees also told Amnesty International they had lost access to electricity, water and gas in the early days of the Russian invasion and that there was very limited access to food. There was poor cellphone service in the region, and some interviewees said Russian soldiers had confiscated or destroyed mobile phones whenever they saw residents carrying them, or threatened them with violence for having one.
Amnesty International found that threats of violence and intimidation were also widespread. One man in Hostomel, a town northwest of Kyiv, reported seeing an entire dormitory of people who were sheltering from shelling and were forced to go outside, where Russian military officers immediately fired gunshots over their heads, forcing them to drop to the ground. Two men from Bucha, another town northwest of Kyiv, also said snipers regularly shot at them when they went to salvage food from a destroyed grocery store near their home, according to Amnesty International.
Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, seizing territory and shelling cities seemingly indiscriminately. But they have faced strong resistance from Ukrainian troops, who have retaken some territory in recent days as Russian forces retreated.
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, at least 410 civilians have been found dead in recently recaptured towns near Kyiv, particularly in Bucha, which has galvanized global outrage. While graphic evidence of the atrocities has emerged, including eyewitness testimony along with videos and images, Russia has claimed the scenes were “staged.”
Amnesty International said it has obtained evidence that civilians were also killed in indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts, documented an airstrike that killed civilians queueing for food in the northern city of Chernihiv, and gathered evidence from civilians living under siege in the battered cities of Kharkiv, Izium and Mariupol.
“As these horrendous accounts of life under Russian occupation continue to emerge,” Callamard said, “the victims in Ukraine must know that the international community is determined to secure accountability for their suffering.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 07, 5:21 am
Ukraine’s NATO agenda: ‘Weapons, weapons and weapons’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country had a “simple” agenda for Thursday’s NATO meeting.
“It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, including whether to implement new sanctions and supply additional weapons, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Kuleba.
“So we are providing support, but, at the same time, working hard to prevent the escalation of the conflict,” Stoltenberg said.
Kuleba called on “all allies to put aside their hesitations” in aiding Ukraine.
“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further,” Kuleba said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Kuleba on Thursday, according to his office.
“The G7 is committed to holding President Putin to account for his unprovoked war of choice and ensuring he endures a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing genocide after he said hundreds of civilians were found dead in the town of Bucha following the Russian military’s withdrawal.
Ukrainian officials have said more than 400 civilians were killed in Bucha, many with hands tied behind their backs, shot at close range.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement Sunday that all photographs and videos published by the Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” by Russian troops in Bucha were a “provocation” and claimed no resident of Bucha suffered violence at the hands of Russian troops.
Russia has claimed all its units withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30. An ABC News analysis of videos and satellite imagery confirms some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there as early as March 19, when the town was still occupied by Russian forces, contradicting Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and the alleged acts committed by Russian troops “war crimes,” but fell short of calling it genocide. Experts say this could, in part, be a political decision.
“To say that a genocide is occurring, is also to say, we can’t sit on our hands and do nothing here,” David Simon, a senior lecturer and the director of the Genocide Studies program at Yale University, told ABC News.
The U.S. government also has an internal process for designating whether genocide has occurred. It took the State Department five years to designate that a genocide had occurred in Myanmar, Simon said.
This story explains the legal term “genocide” in relation to the war in Ukraine.
What is genocide?
Genocide is defined as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Acts of genocide against members of a group listed in the convention include killings; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting life conditions calculated to being about its physical destruction; imposing measures to prevent births; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Genocide is not just any large scale violence, or violence that becomes particularly gruesome or grisly, Simon said. There has to be intent by the perpetrators to destroy the group, he said.
Killings are also not the only form of genocide that could have occurred in Ukraine, another expert said.
“Other attempts to diminish the group, by placing them in harsh conditions of life, like if you think about starving a group to death, and you actually think of some cities in Ukraine today, where through bombardment and cutting off the flow of humanitarian aid, people are potentially going to be starving,” Alex Hinton, the director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention, told ABC News.
Whether or not these violent acts allegedly committed by Russian forces against civilians are found to be acts of genocide, they are illegal under international law and warrant a response from the international community, Simon said.
“What we’re seeing in Ukraine almost certainly involves crimes against humanity, war crimes, and then to less well defined terms, ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities,” Simon said.
Legal threshold for defining genocide
The legal definition of genocide does not define a threshold for an amount of violence that has to have happened in order for it to be considered genocide.
“The importance of intent within the definition of genocide means really, that there is no legal threshold. Particularly because the convention says the ‘intent destroy in whole or in part’,” Simon said.
In practice, though, Simon said the possibility of genocide has usually come up when the number of deaths are in the thousands.
As of Wednesday, at least 1,480 civilians have been killed and 2,195 others have been injured in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Consequences for genocide
The U.N.’s convention on genocide tells countries to take claims to one of the organs of the United Nations for the further prevention and suppression of acts of genocide. However, with Russia’s veto power, it is unlikely the Security Council, the organ primarily responsible for ensuring international peace and security, would be able to take action, Simon said.
There are a number of things states or geopolitical actors can do, Hinton said.
Organizations, including Human Rights Watch, and government actors are currently on the ground gathering evidence for a possible trial of those who may have committed crimes. An inquiry could also be launched to investigate the alleged war crimes committed.
The International Criminal Court has begun active investigations into potential war crimes committed, but Simon said it could take years for this to be litigated.
“In most cases, the ICC is able to act only after a conflict is essentially over,” Simon said.
The ICC’s investigation into crimes committed in Myanmar is still primarily in the investigation phase, despite the most intense parts of the violence happening in 2017, Simon said.
Investigators will need to prove it was Russia’s intent to destroy Ukraine or Ukrainians as a group. This evidence would be any articulation of the idea on social media, public broadcasts, in writing or even private communications, Simon said.
But, “there can be no actual case until those individuals that are under warrant are arrested and brought to the Hague for trial,” Simon said.
Radovan Karadzic, who committed war crimes in the former Yugoslavia during 1992 and 1993, and was convicted in the ICC, was at large until 2008.
“His trial, which included genocide charges, took place something like a decade and a half after the acts he undertook,” Simon said.
Experts say leaders should act either way
This violence could push actors to take a stronger stance against Russia, which could have included military action if Russia wasn’t a nuclear power, Simon said.
Biden has repeatedly said American troops will not join the war in Ukraine, warning that going head-to-head would lead to “World War III.” Biden has also denied requests from Zelenskyy for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“But it may push Europeans to have more of a taste to expand sanctions to include Russian exports of gas and oil, which could be far more devastating to the Russian economy than the sanctions that are in place up to this point,” Simon said.
Hinton agreed that additional sanctions could be imposed, but said lines of diplomacy need to be kept open, Hinton said.
“There has to be a way to get out of the conflict, so diplomacy is absolutely critical,” Hinton said.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators last held virtual talks on Friday where they discussed the proposed security guarantee treaty.
Ukraine proposed a new system of security guarantees similar to NATO’s collective defense clause which would legally require “guarantor countries” to provide arms and impose a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine, in the event of an attack.
Simon said the term “genocide” can often be used politically, to describe crimes that do not fit its legal definition.
“People tend to use genocide as a label for anything that upsets them. Indeed, the Russians have used Neo-Nazis and genocide against Russians as the pretext for invading in the first place, when there’s absolutely no evidence of anything, especially intent to destroy Russians within Ukraine,” Simon said.
Hinton agreed, saying, “genocide has always from the very beginning, been a sort of political football. It’s used and misused by states to serve their interest.”
A designation that the crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians amounts to genocide should not make a difference in the response, according to Simon.
“There are clearly violations of international law that are causing great harm to civilian populations. And that alone should should trigger a stronger response,” he said.
“We have enough evidence of crimes against humanity, that if we think that mass atrocities are a reason for ratcheting up pressure, militarily or otherwise, against the perpetrator force, we have that evidence with us now and we don’t need to have a determination of genocide to decide whether or not we find bodies in the street of Bucha repulsive or revolting,” Simon said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 8:05 pm
Obama calls war in Ukraine ‘tragedy of historic proportions’
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the Ukraine-Russia conflict Wednesday during his appearance at the Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy conference and called the war a “tragedy of historic proportions.”
“It is a bracing reminder for democracies that have gotten flabby, and confused and feckless around the stakes of things that we tended to take for granted: rule of law, freedom of press and conscience … that you have to fight for that information,” he said.
Obama said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “always ruthless.”
“For him to bet the farm in this way, I would have not necessarily predicted by him five years ago,” he said.
Obama added he sees some hope given the response of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s residents.
“He has the potential of preventing a maximalist victory for Putin and over the long term may allow for an independent Ukraine,” Obama said.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd
Apr 06, 7:36 pm
Zelenskyy vows that Russia won’t succeed in hiding evidence of atrocities
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his daily address Russia’s leadership is now afraid after photos and videos of their army’s atrocities in Bucha, and are trying to cover up their actions.
But the president vowed that the country won’t succeed in hiding their violence.
“If the world has started a debate about whether it is permissible to call what the Russian military did on the territory of Ukraine genocide, the search for truth can no longer be stopped. You can’t roll it back in any way,” he said.
Zelenskyy praised the new U.S. sanctions that suspend Russia’s ability to use U.S. bank accounts and related assets to pay its debt.
“This package has a spectacular look, but this is not enough,” he said.
Zelenskyy added, “we will continue to insist on a complete blockade of the Russian banking system from international finance.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 4:37 pm
White House will focus on mitigating cost on Americans: Psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News Wednesday that the administration is focused on mitigating the war’s cost for the American people, including by releasing restricted petroleum reserves.
She said the administration will “take steps to reduce the impact on the American people over time.”
Psaki was also asked by ABC News if the rate of financial assistance the U.S. has provided to Ukraine is sustainable for a long-term war.
Psaki acknowledged that with Putin consolidating his troops, “We’re entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time.”
“It doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same, and that is something we will continue to assess in our conversations with the Ukrainians, as well as with our allies and partners around the world,” she added.
Psaki noted that the administration’s current goal is to continue to amp up military and humanitarian aid.
“There will be different needs that will come about over the course of time,” she said. “And that’s something we are of course committed to continuing to support their recovery from this their continued fight from this, but I can’t make an assessment about sustaining because obviously this war, and the needs, will change over the course of time”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García, Mary Bruce
Apr 06, 4:20 pm
UN special adviser on genocide warns war is worsening tensions elsewhere
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations’ special adviser for the prevention of genocide, said the scenes of dead civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha indicate “hundreds of victims [were] deliberately targeted, which point to very serious signs of possible commission of war crimes.”
Wairimu Nderitu in a statement said Russia’s war is exacerbating existing tensions elsewhere, particularly in the western Balkans, where Bosnian Muslims were killed in the Srebrenica genocide less than 30 years ago.
“In the last six weeks, the conflict in Ukraine has deteriorated some of these dynamics,” she said. “Open vindication of violence against members of one national group, appeal to religion as a source of legitimacy for violence, or alignment of national pursuits to the cause of warrying parties in the Ukraine conflict do not only constitutes symptoms of insufficient healing in a region where conflict was present — they are also signs that the risk of recurrence is real and serious.”
Tensions in Bosnia were increasing long before the war, despite efforts from a U.S.-brokered peace deal to patch up the wounds of war and genocide. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to tear apart the country’s ethnically-divided federal institutions and the country itself, which has brought him under tighter U.S. sanctions.
Along with protests from Peru to Sri Lanka over fuel and food prices, and humanitarian crises in Yemen and Afghanistan with funding and food aid drying up, it’s another reminder of how Russia’s war is sending shockwaves around the world.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 06, 2:15 pm
Biden addresses Bucha in-depth for 1st time, calling it ‘major war crimes’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the horrific images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures from Bucha and just outside of Kyiv, bodies left in streets as Russian troops withdrew. Some shot … with their hands tied behind their backs. Civilians executed in cold blood,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
“Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said.
Biden called on responsible nations to “come together to hold these perpetrators accountable.”
“The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone. Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains and because we’ve cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 1:43 pm
All Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv: US official
All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.
But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.
“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.
While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’ll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.
The official also said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.
The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.
“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 06, 1:03 pm
Yellen says goal of sanctions is to ‘impose maximum pain on Russia’ while shielding allies from economic harm
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before the House Committee on Financial Services that the Treasury would continue to take steps to prevent Russia from participating in the international financial system.
“Russia’s actions, including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront the rules based global order and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” she said.
Yellen said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have assisted Ukraine, allowing the country “fiscal space to pay salaries for civilians, soldiers, doctors and nurses.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., asked Yellen why the U.S. continues to provide licenses that permit certain bank transactions related to Russian energy despite a ban on Russian oil imports. Yellen said that although the sanctions aim to cripple Russia’s economy, some of the U.S.’s European allies are still dependent on Russian gas.
“Our goal from the outset has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while, to the best of our ability, shielding the United States and our partners of undue economic harm,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of our European partners remain heavily dependent on Russian natural gas as well as oil.”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
(WASHINGTON) — With North Korea set to celebrate its most important holiday next week, the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang “may be tempted to take another provocative action,” including a possible nuclear test.
“We, in cooperation and coordination with our allies and partners, are prepared to deal with whatever they may undertake, and I want to emphasize that we obviously hope that they will refrain from further provocation,” U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said.
North Korea will celebrate the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. Kim is the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong Un.
The isolated country has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017, its sixth on record.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine exacerbates tensions between the Kremlin and the West, Kim said Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have obstructed any U.S. effort to condemn North Korea’s recent spate of missile launches — including the kind of long-range one that Russia and China used to condemn back in 2017.
“Unfortunately, I cannot report that we have had productive discussions with” China or Russia about a new U.N. Security Council resolution, Kim told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
The two countries have blocked even a public statement from the U.N. Security Council condemning the 13 recent launches, per Kim, even though they violate multiple U.N. resolutions.
Still, the U.S. and its allies are pursuing a new resolution to condemn North Korea’s launches because “the Security Council needs to respond to these blatant violations of multiple Security Council resolutions,” Kim said. “This is about the credibility of the United Nations.”
Kim, who also serves as the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, traveled to Washington this week, including to meet his Chinese counterpart Tuesday for a “very long and detailed discussion.”
He said despite Chinese opposition, he remains “convinced that Beijing shares our goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Part of the U.S. outreach to China on this issue is because North Korea has rejected all U.S. entreaties under the Biden administration.
“We have sent several messages, both public and private, inviting them to a dialogue without any conditions,” Kim told reporters, but North Korea has yet to respond, which Kim called “very disappointing.”
He declined to speculate on why, but said the COVID-19 pandemic could be one reason. North Korea “finds itself isolated in unprecedented ways and has shut itself off during the COVID pandemic. Only the resumption of diplomacy can break this isolation,” he said.
Instead, the U.S. has heard more fiery rhetoric from Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who this week warned of a nuclear response if South Korea prepared to strike. Kim said the U.S. was “concerned” by the “provocative” comments.
With Biden’s North Korea policy going nowhere fast, Kim argued it is still having an important effect. While Pyongyang remains committed to perfecting its nuclear weapons program, U.S. sanctions and pressure “are constraining their progress,” he said.
Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Images emerging out of Borodyanka, a small town on the outskirts of Kyiv, show how much devastation has been left in the wake of Russian occupation.
Buildings are seen burned and completely destroyed, surrounded by rubble left behind by Russian forces that failed to overtake the Ukrainian capital. Widespread destruction was seen in the suburbs surrounding Kyiv, including Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka. Burned-out cars litter the roadways.
ABC News foreign correspondent James Longman, who reported from Borodyanka on Wednesday, described an apartment complex “cut in half” and another building that had so much of its exterior blown off that it’s possible to “see right into people’s homes.”
BREAKING OVERNIGHT: New images this morning of Russian atrocities in Ukraine, as Ukrainian president Zelenskyy blasts the U.N. in a fiery address.@JamesAALongman reports live from the war zone this morning.
The town of Borodyanka, about 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, “is almost destroyed,” Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of Kyiv Oblast, said Tuesday after visiting the Borodyanka.
After Ukrainian officials began to discover the atrocities committed in Bucha, Ukrainian prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova said the situation in Borodyanka, about 50 miles northwest of Kyiv, could be worse.
“In fact, the worst situation, when we talk about civilian casualties in Kyiv region, is in Borodyanka,” Venediktova said Monday on Ukrainian TV.
The death toll in Borodyanka and other liberated cities may be even higher than in Bucha, where at least 300 people were killed or tortured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Monday. Russian troops occupied Borodyanka even longer than Bucha.
“We are already doing everything possible to identify all the Russian military involved in these crimes as soon as possible — everything to punish them,” Zelenskyy said. “This will be a joint work of our state with the European Union and international institutions, in particular with the International Criminal Court.”
Drone video filmed in early March showed the extent of devastation and destruction in residential areas of Borodyanka after strikes from Russian forces began.
Humanitarian corridors from Borodyanka had been established as Ukrainian nationalists moved into residential areas of the town, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on March 3. It is unclear how many were able to flee the small town of about 13,000.
Zelenskyy began recounting the annihilation of Borodyanka as early as March 5, detailing destroyed schools and the Kharkiv Assumption Cathedral, which had been badly damaged in the air raids.
“Look what Russia has done,” Zelenskyy said in a March 5 address. “It did it right in front of your eyes. Protect yourself!”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 07, 5:21 am
Ukraine’s NATO agenda: ‘Weapons, weapons and weapons’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country had a “simple” agenda for Thursday’s NATO meeting.
“It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, including whether to implement new sanctions and supply additional weapons, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Kuleba.
“So we are providing support, but, at the same time, working hard to prevent the escalation of the conflict,” Stoltenberg said.
Kuleba called on “all allies to put aside their hesitations” in aiding Ukraine.
“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further,” Kuleba said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Kuleba on Thursday, according to his office.
“The G7 is committed to holding President Putin to account for his unprovoked war of choice and ensuring he endures a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 4:37 pm
White House will focus on mitigating cost on Americans: Psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News Wednesday that the administration is focused on mitigating the war’s cost for the American people, including by releasing restricted petroleum reserves.
She said the administration will “take steps to reduce the impact on the American people over time.”
Psaki was also asked by ABC News if the rate of financial assistance the U.S. has provided to Ukraine is sustainable for a long-term war.
Psaki acknowledged that with Putin consolidating his troops, “We’re entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time.”
“It doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same, and that is something we will continue to assess in our conversations with the Ukrainians, as well as with our allies and partners around the world,” she added.
Psaki noted that the administration’s current goal is to continue to amp up military and humanitarian aid.
“There will be different needs that will come about over the course of time,” she said. “And that’s something we are of course committed to continuing to support their recovery from this their continued fight from this, but I can’t make an assessment about sustaining because obviously this war, and the needs, will change over the course of time”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García, Mary Bruce
Apr 06, 4:20 pm
UN special adviser on genocide warns war is worsening tensions elsewhere
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations’ special adviser for the prevention of genocide, said the scenes of dead civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha indicate “hundreds of victims [were] deliberately targeted, which point to very serious signs of possible commission of war crimes.”
Wairimu Nderitu in a statement said Russia’s war is exacerbating existing tensions elsewhere, particularly in the western Balkans, where Bosnian Muslims were killed in the Srebrenica genocide less than 30 years ago.
“In the last six weeks, the conflict in Ukraine has deteriorated some of these dynamics,” she said. “Open vindication of violence against members of one national group, appeal to religion as a source of legitimacy for violence, or alignment of national pursuits to the cause of warrying parties in the Ukraine conflict do not only constitutes symptoms of insufficient healing in a region where conflict was present — they are also signs that the risk of recurrence is real and serious.”
Tensions in Bosnia were increasing long before the war, despite efforts from a U.S.-brokered peace deal to patch up the wounds of war and genocide. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to tear apart the country’s ethnically-divided federal institutions and the country itself, which has brought him under tighter U.S. sanctions.
Along with protests from Peru to Sri Lanka over fuel and food prices, and humanitarian crises in Yemen and Afghanistan with funding and food aid drying up, it’s another reminder of how Russia’s war is sending shockwaves around the world.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 06, 2:15 pm
Biden addresses Bucha in-depth for 1st time, calling it ‘major war crimes’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the horrific images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures from Bucha and just outside of Kyiv, bodies left in streets as Russian troops withdrew. Some shot … with their hands tied behind their backs. Civilians executed in cold blood,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
“Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said.
Biden called on responsible nations to “come together to hold these perpetrators accountable.”
“The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone. Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains and because we’ve cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 1:43 pm
All Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv: US official
All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.
But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.
“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.
While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’ll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.
The official also said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.
The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.
“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 06, 1:03 pm
Yellen says goal of sanctions is to ‘impose maximum pain on Russia’ while shielding allies from economic harm
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before the House Committee on Financial Services that the Treasury would continue to take steps to prevent Russia from participating in the international financial system.
“Russia’s actions, including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront the rules based global order and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” she said.
Yellen said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have assisted Ukraine, allowing the country “fiscal space to pay salaries for civilians, soldiers, doctors and nurses.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., asked Yellen why the U.S. continues to provide licenses that permit certain bank transactions related to Russian energy despite a ban on Russian oil imports. Yellen said that although the sanctions aim to cripple Russia’s economy, some of the U.S.’s European allies are still dependent on Russian gas.
“Our goal from the outset has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while, to the best of our ability, shielding the United States and our partners of undue economic harm,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of our European partners remain heavily dependent on Russian natural gas as well as oil.”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
(NEW ORLEANS) — An American nun was abducted from a parish in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, where she has been stationed as a missionary since 2014, according to the archdiocese of New Orleans.
The 83-year-old Sister Suellen Tennyson was abducted overnight on Monday and taken to an unknown destination by unidentified armed men, according to Bishop Theophile Nare.
The archdiocese of New Orleans said the kidnappers vandalized the convent where Tennyson lived before she was taken.
“We first and foremost are praying for Sr. Suellen’s safety and for her release from her captives. Let us pray too for all impacted by the actions of this group, particularly our sisters who witnessed the vandalism and kidnapping. We are in touch with governmental leaders who have pledged to keep us informed as they learn more,” Marianite congregational leader Sister Ann Lacour said.
Asked about Tennyson’s case, a spokesperson for the State Department told ABC News they are aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in Burkina Faso.
The U.S. embassy in Ouagadougou is working “diligently” with local authorities on the case and monitoring the situation, they added – “ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”
“Until the search for her is successful, we remain in communion of prayer for the release of Sr. Suellen Tennyson,” Nare said in a statement.
Suellen has strong ties to the New Orleans area having served here for many years prior to her work as a missionary, according to the archdiocese of New Orleans.
“For many years, Sr. Suellen ministered to the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans with great joy. Today, we express our sadness and shock at her abduction and offer our prayers for her safe return. Please join me in praying for Sr. Suellen, the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, and all who know and love her during this difficult time,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
Anatolii Siryk/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
(BUCHA, Ukraine) — As Mykola Pavlyuk stood outside his apartment building in Bucha, tears streamed from his eyes, cutting through the grime on his face. He was desperate to share his story but shook from the trauma of it.
Pavlyuk, 53, was one of the surviving residents of the besieged Ukrainian town, northwest of Kyiv, where gruesome evidence of killings and torture has come to light following the withdrawal of Russian forces. He told ABC News when Russian troops came to his apartment building, they killed all the men who were younger than 50, including two of Pavlyuk’s friends.
Pavlyuk said he was given 20 minutes to bury them. He showed ABC News the shallow graves he hastily dug in the backyard, each marked with a plank of wood and topped with a religious icon. He wanted to give them whatever dignity he could.
“But it’s too shallow,” Pavlyuk said. “I just wanted to protect them from the dogs.”
Pavlyuk and other residents spoke with ABC News in the days after Russian forces departed Bucha, leaving an apparent trail of death, destruction, terror and trauma that has shaken the global community. Hundreds of people were said to have been killed during the occupation. When ABC News arrived on Tuesday, bodies still lay in the streets. The international community has called for an investigation into whether war crimes, including genocide, were committed.
When Russian troops arrived in Bucha, which they occupied Feb. 27, they asked everyone for documentation and forced the men to strip down naked to reveal any tattoos, according to Pavlyuk. They immediately shot and killed anyone whom they deemed a threat, without asking any questions, he said.
The mayor of the nearby town of Motyzhyn, Olga Sukhenko, and her family appear to have met the same fate. ABC News witnessed their lifeless bodies in a wooded area.
Another Bucha resident, who declined to give her name, told ABC News her husband was also forced to remove his clothes to show whether he had any tattoos.
Russian soldiers took over Pavlyuk’s apartment building, turning the homes of Ukrainian families into wartime dormitories for drunk, violent thugs, he said. Rooms Pavlyuk showed ABC News were strewn with blankets and old food.
Pavlyuk said he and his wife lived in the basement for more than month with little food or water, only leaving to cook on a stove outside.
He told ABC News they faced the constant fear of an arbitrary killing or a random act of violence, like when a friend was killed by a grenade he said was thrown as a joke by a drunk soldier. The friend’s body parts lay outside on the ground for days until Pavlyuk was allowed to gather them, put them in a bag and bury them in a grave next to his two other friends, he said.
More bodies were dumped in a mass grave outside a church. Residents had gone out to collect some of the dead from the streets while the town was under Russian occupation. The trench was filled with bodies in black plastic bags that lay on top of other victims, who were either wrapped in sheets or nothing at all. Locals told ABC News there could be as many as 90 people buried there.
Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, seizing territory and bombing entire cities. As the war grinds on, Russia faces strong resistance from Ukraine, whose troops managed to take back some territory in recent days as Russian forces retreated.
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, at least 410 civilians have been found dead in Bucha and other recently recaptured towns near Ukraine’s capital, where there’s an ongoing investigation into possible war crimes committed by Russian forces. Graphic images have emerged from Bucha showing unarmed individuals in civilian clothes who appear to have been executed with their hands or legs bound, sparking outrage from the United States and a number of nations and institutions.
Russia has denied responsibility, calling the images “fake” and saying all of its units withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30. An ABC News analysis of videos and satellite imagery confirms some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there as early as March 19, when the town was still occupied by Russian forces, contradicting Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
While in Bucha, ABC News encountered a Human Rights Watch team gathering evidence of war crimes.
“What we’ve seen so far and what we’ve heard from residents — what we’ve been documenting — is really horrific, including reports that Russian forces have pulled people out of their homes, briefly interrogated them and then executed them,” said Richard Weir, a researcher in the Crisis and Conflict division at Human Rights Watch.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross was also on scene in Bucha, assessing needs and delivering humanitarian aid.
“Humanitarian situation is dire,” ICRC spokesperson Alyona Synenko told ABC News. “We have seen extremely vulnerable people — elderly, people with limited mobility, people who are sick, who are alone in their unheated apartments with no electricity, with no running water, with medical needs.”
Bucha residents Tatyana Chernysh and her husband told ABC News they must have survived “by God’s will” when so many of their neighbors did not.
“At any time, the occupiers could enter our premises and do with us whatever they wanted,” said Chernysh’s husband, who said he was too frightened to give his first name. “It was terrifying. It was awful.”
The couple didn’t leave their house while Russian troops occupied the town. They said “good people” brought them food and medicine. Although the Russian soldiers camped away from their home, Chernysh and her husband said they heard unyielding gunfire and that stray bullets pockmarked their house.
Since the withdrawal of Russian forces and the recent arrival of aid, Chernysh and her husband have finally come out of hiding to see what remains of their battered town. They recalled seeing bodies strewn across the streets and sidewalks.
“It is obvious their intention was to destroy Ukraine, destroy our people, destroy our economy, destroy our culture,” Chernysh’s husband said of the Russian troops. “They claimed they came to liberate. They didn’t. They are terrorists.”
After surviving such “senseless” horror, the family said they “feel safe” and intend to stay in Bucha, despite a lack of electricity, running water and reliable communication.
“It’s where we live. We don’t want to yield our homes to occupiers,” Chernysh’s husband said. “It is our town. It is our home. We are going to stay.”
Although he admitted they might think twice if Russian forces return.
“Hopefully they won’t come back,” he added, “but with them you can never tell.”
