Bodies found in Hostomel and Eastern Ukraine escape

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the West to impose tougher sanctions on Russia. He called for an embargo on Russian oil and a complete exclusion of the Russian banking system from international finance. If there is no “really painful sanctions package” and no delivery of the weapons demanded by Kiev to Ukraine, Russia will see this as “permission to move forward”, Zelensky said in a video speech published late on Thursday.

At the same time, Zelenskyy warned of a new offensive by the Russian military in eastern Ukraine. Moscow continues to build combat power to realize its ambitions in the Donbass region. The Kiev government has already called on people in the Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions to flee. She expects Russian troops withdrawn from the capital Kiev to be sent east. Zelenskyj emphasized: “We will fight and not withdraw.”

The Ukrainian president also called on the people of Russia to demand an end to the war. The death of civilians in cities like Bucha occupied by Russian troops should be a clincher. “No one in Russia who does not demand an end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine has a future,” Zelenskyy said. Citizens would rather face the Russian repressive machine now than be “compared to the Nazis” for the rest of their lives.

Ukraine: Eleven bodies found in Kiev suburb

According to Ukrainian sources, eleven bodies were found in a garage in the Kiev suburb of Hostomel after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Police discovered them on Wednesday, Ukrajinska Pravda reported, citing a cable from former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. So the dead would be civilians who were killed by Russian soldiers. The information could not be independently verified. Northwest of the capital, Hostomel and the nearby airfield have been heavily contested since the beginning of the war. Most of the original 16,000 residents fled. According to the local military administration, about 400 residents of Hostomel were missing.

After calls to flee eastern Ukraine in the face of a possible large-scale Russian offensive, the mayor of Kharkiv is trying to calm down. Neither he nor the military currently consider it necessary to carry out a centralized evacuation of the country’s second-largest city, Ihor Terekhov said in a video message. The city of Kharkiv is well armed and ready for defense. However, the evacuation order applies to the southern districts of the Kharkiv region. Before the war, Kharkiv had around 1.5 million inhabitants. According to the regional administration, most residents left the city in the first weeks of the war. Kharkiv has been under almost constant air and artillery attacks since the Russian invasion began in late February.