Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
April 5, 11.00 a.m. EST
WAR ROOM
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 05.04 were approximate:
personnel - about 18500,
tanks ‒ 676,
APV ‒ 1858,
artillery systems – 332,
MLRS - 107,
Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 55,
aircraft – 150,
helicopters – 134,
vehicles - 1322,
boats / cutters - 7,
fuel tanks - 76,
UAV operational-tactical level - 94.
special equipment - 25.
mobile SRBM system - 4.
Data are being updated. The calculation is complicated by the high intensity of hostilities.
The forty-first day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a Russian military invasion began.
A Russian enemy is regrouping troops and concentrating its efforts on preparing an offensive operation in the east of our country. The goal is to establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The Russian enemy is trying to improve the position of units in the Tavriya and Pivdennobuzhsky operational areas.
The units withdrawn from Polissya and Sivershchyna are moving to new operational areas. The redeployment of troops of the Central Military District from the territory of Ukraine has been completed. The designated units of the above, after the completion of the restoration of combat capability, will be moved to the area of the settlement Valuyki and included in the offensive groups of troops.
The movement of columns of armaments and military equipment on the territory of Belarus in the direction of the railway stations Gomel, Yelsk, and Mozyr for loading on railway echelons is noted. A significant part of the aircraft and helicopters of the Air and Space Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian federation were relocated from the airfields of the Republic of Belarus to the territory of Russia.
The Russian enemy concentrated its main efforts on preparations for the resumption of the offensive with the help of separate units of the 6th and 20th All-Army, 1st Tank Army, Baltic and Northern Fleets, as well as attempts to surround the Joint Forces. The enemy replenishes supplies of food, fuel and oil, and ammunition.
The Russian occupiers continue to blockade Kharkiv, continuing artillery shelling and further destroying the city's residential neighborhoods and infrastructure.
In the direction of Slovyansk, the Russian enemy is trying to resume offensive operations. In the direction of Barvinkove it has partial success, advanced 7 km, and took control of the village of Brazhkivka. Also, it was attacked by the battalion tactical group of the 1st Tank Regiment in the direction of the settlement of Sulyhivka, but had no success.
The Russian enemy is working to restore the bridge in the city of Izyum to improve the movement of Russian troops in this direction and to ensure the crossing of the river Siversky Donets.
In the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, the Russian occupiers are focusing their efforts on taking control of the Popasna and Rubizhne districts, establishing full control over Mariupol, and preparing offensive operations near the Zolota Nyva settlement.
In the areas of Borivske, Novoluhanske, Solodke, Marinka, Zolota Nyva, the enemy continued artillery shelling of positions of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and civilian infrastructure.
The Russian enemy carried out assault operations near the settlements of Novotoshkivske, Nyzhne, Popasna, Kalynove, Stepne, Rubizhne, Troitske, Novobakhmutivka, and Novoselivka Druha, but was unsuccessful.
Russian invaders inflicted massive artillery and airstrikes on the city of Mariupol.
In the direction of the Pivdennobuzhsky direction, the occupying forces carry out assault actions with the support of artillery for the purpose of taking control of the settlement of Alexandrivka, having partial success. In the area of the settlements of Lyubyne, Myrne, and Kopani, the Russian occupiers fired artillery at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Russian troops carried out attacks on Mykolaiv with cluster munitions forbidden by the Geneva convention. Civilian quarters and medical facilities, including a children's hospital, came under enemy fire. There are dead and wounded, including children.
The Russian occupying forces continue to suffer losses. They have big problems with the staffing of combat units and support units. The enemy's personnel were demoralized, which led to an increase in the number of desertions and the refusal of servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian federation to take part in the war on the territory of Ukraine.
Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine
Prosecutors jointly with police officers of the Kyiv Region found a torture chamber in the town of Bucha. Law enforcers found the bodies of five men with their hands tied in the basement of a children's sanatorium. Russian servicemen had tortured unarmed civilians and then killed them.
Murders and injuries of civilians, as well as damage to the EU Advisory Mission in Donetsk - some proceedings have been initiated. Under the procedural guidance of the district prosecutor's offices of the Donetsk oblast, the pre-trial investigation is carried out in 7 criminal proceedings on violations of the laws and customs of war (Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, on April 4th, 2022, the army of the Russian Federation carried out artillery shelling of Heorhiivka, Pokrovskyi district, as a result of which the building and the yard of the educational institution were damaged, two residents were injured.
The enemy fired on the Bakhmut district for several hours - the Vozdvyzhenka village was damaged, from where a woman with multiple shrapnel wounds was taken to the hospital. As a result of prolonged shelling, residential buildings and the territory of one of the workshops of the Avdiivka Coke Plant were damaged in the urban-type settlement New York in Toretska Regional state. Information about the victims is being clarified.
The wounded from the Luhansk oblast are taken to Bakhmut Hospital every day. Currently, emergency assistance is being provided to two residents of Lysychansk who have suffered mine injuries, fractures, and injuries due to the shelling of residential areas.
The shelling of Mariupol by the Russian occupiers continues. It is now known about the death of another resident and the injury of another, as well as the damage to the premises of the Regional Office of the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM).
On April 5th, 2022, Russian troops and representatives of fake "republics" again covered the urban-type settlement New York in Toretska Regional state with mortar fire. According to preliminary data, one civilian was seriously injured. As a result of the Slovyansk shelling, a critical infrastructure object was damaged.
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine
On April 5, there are planned 7 humanitarian corridors:
1. From Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia by own transport.
2. Planned evacuation from Tokmak to Zaporizhzhia.
4. From Severodonetsk to Bakhmut.
5. From Lysychansk to Bakhmut.
6. From Popasna to the city of Bakhmut.
7. From the village of Gorske to Bakhmut.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
As of 10 o'clock on April 5, 2022, according to the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, as well as other sources that need confirmation, since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, 165 children died (+4 per day) and 266 children were injured (+2 per day).
It is impossible to establish the actual number of dead and wounded children due to the fact that the occupying forces are actively fighting in Ukrainian cities.
It became known that during the occupation of the village Vorzel of Kyiv region, the aggressor's militants threw a smoke grenade into the basement of one of the houses where a 14-year-old child and a woman were staying, after which they fired on a child and his mother.
Russian troops continue to shell Mykolaiv, which is prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Cluster Munitions and on Their Destruction by Cluster Munitions. Civilian quarters came under enemy fire: an orphanage, 11 kindergartens, 12 schools, 1 vocational school, 2 branches of out-of-school educational institutions and medical institutions. One child died as a result of the shelling of a children's hospital. The enemy systematically continues to destroy Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. So far, 869 educational institutions have been damaged by bombing and shelling during the Russian invasion, 83 of which have been completely destroyed.
Mass cases of torture of civilians are recorded in the territories liberated from the occupiers.
Killed children under the age of 10 with signs of rape and torture were found in the city of Irpen.
In the Kyiv region, the «Prolisok children's camp» housed the base of an army unit for three weeks. Five corpses of men with their hands tied behind their backs were found in the basement of the building. They were tortured and then killed in cold blood. One of the victims had his skull crushed with butt blows with special hardness. Others were shot in the back of the head or chest.
In the village of Viktorivka in the Chernihiv region, which has been under occupation for 25 days, Russians held people hostage in the basement, from the elderly to newborns. Residents were escorted to collect at least a bucket of water. No medication was given, even to those whose lives depended on certain medications. A man with asthma has died. Russian militants ordered the hostages to bury the body next to them in the woods. Due to inhumane living conditions and infections brought by the occupiers, a number of diseases began, including chickenpox.
At least three tortured peaceful Ukrainians have already been found in the Konotop district of Sumy region on the sites of former enemy camps.
Torture and killing of civilians is a crime against humanity and a war crime under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, for which Russians are awaited by an international military tribunal.
Residents of the temporarily occupied Izyum in the Kharkiv region are forcibly deported by Russian occupiers to the territory of the Russian Federation.
The enemy creates filtration corridors, camps, through which he deports Ukrainian citizens to Russia. This is not the first time Russian troops have used such tactics. After bringing the city to a critical situation, the enemy offers a conditional corridor to Russia, ostensibly to save people, leaving people no choice.
Currently, Russian media report that they have deported 615,000 people from Ukraine, including 121,000 children. Such treatment of civilians is a crime against humanity and a war crime as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms guarantees that no one may be expelled from the territory of the state of which he or she is a national.
Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the UN International Criminal Court classifies "deportation or forcible transfer of population" as a crime against humanity that entails international criminal responsibility.
Mass violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are recorded in the territories temporarily occupied by the enemy.
Most of the occupied settlements of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions remain in a difficult situation due to the actions of the racist occupiers, lack of medicines and food, and in some districts - water supply and communications.
In Polohy, Zaporizhia region, Russian soldiers seized and mined the territory of the Central District Hospital. Staff and patients were forbidden to return to the hospital. The wounded occupiers remained in the room.
Around Nova Kakhovka, the enemy increased the checkpoints. The invaders detain civilians and force them to dig trenches. Increasingly, the occupiers are illegally taking cars from locals.
Wages will be reduced in the temporarily occupied areas where the racists have established pseudo-authorities.
The self-proclaimed "mayor" of Kakhovka, Pavlo Filipchuk, told public utilities that Russia could not pay salaries such as Ukraine. Employees will receive half as much for their work.
The men of the temporarily occupied Melitopol are sent "service summons" to the occupiers in the so-called "people's militia".
Terror, cruel and degrading treatment of civilians in the occupied territories is a war crime under the Statute of the International Military Tribunal and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Every day of the war in Ukraine there are more and more cases of sexual violence by the Russian occupiers. Rape has become another weapon of the racist army against civilians in the occupied territories.
In the Kharkiv region, the Russian occupier raped a 29-year-old woman caring for her immobile mother for more than a week. The woman repeatedly experienced sexual violence on his part, but was unable to reach law enforcement. Soon a militant broke her phone. A week later, the racist began to talk to the woman about love and offered to send her away from the war. In response to the woman's refusal due to the inability to leave the mother, the villain simply shot the old woman in front of her daughter. The woman managed to escape and is now undergoing rehabilitation.
In the village of Mala Rohan in the Kharkiv region, a Russian soldier beat and repeatedly raped a 31-year-old woman who was hiding at a school with her 5-year-old daughter, mother, sister, brother and other residents of the village. Holding a weapon near her head, the racist repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman who he said reminded him of the girl he went to school with. A Russian soldier cut the woman's neck and cheek with a knife, cut her hair, and hit her in the face with a book. When the racists left, the woman and her family managed to walk to Kharkiv and receive the necessary medical care.
These horrific stories once again confirm the brutal atrocities of the Russian occupiers in our Homeland.
The perpetration of sexual violence in armed conflict is a war crime and a violation of fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
Article 27 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949, prohibits encroachment on the honor of women and guarantees protection against rape, coercion into prostitution or any other form of encroachment on their morals.
POLICY
President of Ukraine
There is ample evidence that it is Russian troops who destroy peaceful cities, torture and kill civilians - address of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Ukrainians
I’ve visited Stoyanka, Irpin, Bucha - cities in the Kyiv region, which we liberated from the occupiers. We are already doing everything possible to identify all the Russian military involved in these crimes as soon as possible to punish them. This will be a joint work of our state with the European Union and international institutions, in particular with the International Criminal Court.
I discussed this issue today with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. And also with Chancellor of Austria Nehammer. We agreed on his visit to Ukraine in the near future.
I also discussed the investigation into the war crimes of Russian troops with Polish President Duda. We also talked about new sanctions against Russia, humanitarian and defense cooperation with Poland.
All crimes of the occupiers are documented. The necessary procedural basis is provided for bringing the guilty Russian military to justice for every crime they commit.
We are interested in the most complete, transparent investigation, the results of which will be known and explained to the entire international community. We provide maximum access for journalists to Bucha and other liberated cities of Ukraine for the world to see what Russia has done.
Russian propagandists are constantly trying to reject accusations of the Russian military. As like they did when the occupiers shot down a Malaysian Boeing over Donbas. They blamed Ukraine and came up with various conspiracy theories. Now they are doing the same thing by trying to distort the facts.
After the revealed mass killings of civilians in the Kyiv region, the occupiers may have a different attitude to their crimes in parts our country where they came. They are already launching a false campaign to conceal their guilt in the mass killings of civilians in Mariupol. They will do dozens of stage interviews, re-edited recordings, and will kill people specifically to make it look like they were killed by someone else.
Therefore, Russian propagandists and their leaders can now succeed in only one thing: making their work enough for the verdict of the future tribunal, which will be similar to the verdict of Julius Streicher, one of the ideologues of Nazism. The end of their life will be behind bars.
The sanctions response of the democratic world to Russia’s massacre of civilians must finally be powerful. Did hundreds of our people really have to die in agony for some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the most severe pressure?
Only now do we hear from all world leader’s statements that should have been made long ago, when everything was already completely clear.
Ukraine must get all the necessary weapons to liberate our cities. If we had already got what we needed - all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile and anti-ship weapons, we could have saved thousands of people. I do not blame you - I blame only the Russian military. But you could have helped.
We have already started preparing all the necessary work to restore normal life in the liberated areas. Mine clearance of the territory is carried out. In the near future we will restore electricity supply, restore water supply. We will provide medical care, normal access to goods - as much as possible in the current conditions. We will rebuild the destroyed housing and infrastructure.
Today I expressed condolences to the President of the Republic of Lithuania and to the entire Lithuanian people over the brutal murder of the world-famous documentary filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius by the Russian occupiers in Mariupol.
We continue to prepare for even more brutal activity of the occupiers in the eastern and southern directions of the country. Russia concentrates a significant amount of military and equipment there, proving that sanctions imposed against Russia are not enough.
Full address: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/ye-bezlich-dokaziv-sho-same-rosijski-vijska-znishuyut-mirni-74089
Resolving the issues of Donbas and Crimea by military means will have a very high price for Ukraine, and this is well understood, first of all, by our military - Volodymyr Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that the issue of the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea should not be conneced to the negotiation process with Russia to end the war and withdraw Russian troops from the territories of our state where they entered starting from February 24. This was stated by the President in an interview to the Ukrainian media.
He is convinced that resolving all issues in a package and thus ending the war with Russia is difficult and unlikely. Especially when there are tanks on our territory, rockets hit our cities, when there are difficult situations in blocked cities, such as Mariupol.
Responding to calls for the military liberation of all temporarily occupied territories, the President stressed that one of the most powerful groups of Ukrainian troops are fighting in Donbas, in the Joint Forces Operation area. They oppose the enemy, which significantly outnumbers them. And if you give them the command to go on the offensive now, it will cost thousands of lives.
The President noted that today the de-occupation of Mariupol by military means is very difficult. And its defenders, who are fighting in extremely difficult conditions, know this very well. There is an agreement on this issue with Turkey, which is ready to transport the wounded and killed in Mariupol from Berdyansk.
"We have all the infrastructure ready to take out the wounded and dead. We are waiting for Putin's approval. I talked to Erdoğan, Erdoğan talks to him. And now this moment depends on him. If we succeed, we will see the result in the coming days. If it fails, we will know for sure that the President of the Russian Federation personally does not give such an opportunity. Although everyone is putting pressure from different sides, because it is considered a humanitarian step," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The Head of State also rejected the possibility of returning the occupied Crimea by force. The President explained that Ukraine's proposals in negotiations with Russia on Crimea do not mean that the topic of de-occupation of the peninsula will not be raised for 10-15 years. On the contrary, according to him, the agreement should stipulate that during this period the parties must resolve the issue of Crimea through diplomacy.
"The proposed format is not to solve it now, but to solve it at least tomorrow, during this period. I think this is not a bad decision. But I think so now. Today, if there were such agreements on Crimea, I believe this would be a victory for Ukraine," the President underlined.
Ministry of Foreign affairs of Ukraine
Dmytro Kuleba: “The Bucha massacre must eliminate any hesitation and reluctance on the West to provide Ukraine with all necessary weapons, including aircraft, tanks, multiple rocket launchers, and armored vehicles, to protect our country and liberate it from the Russians.
The same with sanctions. If any of my colleagues from Europe or overseas try to tell me that any sanctions are inappropriate, too harsh, and should not be imposed, I will consider it as a betrayal of the Bucha victims and the civilians of other cities who have been murdered. The massacre in Bucha changes the game's rules on how the West should continue to support Ukraine. "
Read the full interview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for BBC Hardtalk: https://cutt.ly/qFqH4C0
Сomment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Russia's attempts to use food exports as a weapon
On April 1, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev threatened the world community with restrictions on the Russian export of agricultural products to "unfriendly" countries.
We would like to emphasize that the official representative of Russia openly referred to food exports as a weapon. Thus, it reaffirmed the status of Russian Federation as an aggressor not only in the military and energy sectors, but also in the food dimension.
This statement is another evidence of Russia's destructive actions, which violate the basic principles of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – to achieve food security and to defeat hunger. The intentions of the Russian side also undermine the ability of the world community to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Such policy of the aggressor state questions the expediency of its membership in FAO and other international organizations.
It is worth mentioning the fact that the statement of the former president of the Russian Federation is full of factual errors and deliberate manipulations. For example:
- in 2020, Russia imported at least $6.82 billion worth of food and agricultural products from the EU, the US and Canada (not "nothing", as stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation);
- in terms of grain production, Russia is outgone not only by China and India, as according to Medvedev, but also by the United States, the EU and Brazil;
- the Russian Federation includes in the list of "unfriendly" countries its own competitors in the food market;
- if Russia redirects its trade flows from one country to another, it will in no way affect the global grain balance and market saturation.
What does really affect the world food prices, and will affect even more dramatically in the next season is the Russia's blockade of the shipments from the Ukrainian ports, the planting of mines along sea routes, the impeding of sowing campaign in Ukraine due to hostilities and deliberate destruction of the Ukrainian agricultural machinery and infrastructure.
We call on the international community to condemn Russia's actions, to demand withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine and the end to the blockades of the Ukrainian ports, to strengthen economic sanctions in order to stop armed aggression against Ukraine, to prevent further humanitarian catastrophe and worsening of world hunger.