Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
April 8, 10.00 a.m. EST
WAR ROOM
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 08.04 were approximately:
personnel - about 19000,
tanks ‒ 700,
APV ‒ 1891,
artillery systems – 333,
MLRS - 108,
Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 55,
aircraft – 150,
helicopters – 135,
vehicles - 1361,
boats / cutters - 7,
fuel tanks - 76,
UAV operational-tactical level - 112.
special equipment - 25.
mobile SRBM system - 4.
Data are being updated. The calculation is complicated by the high intensity of hostilities.
The forty-fourth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a Russian military invasion continues.
The armed forces of the Russian federation continue their armed aggression against Ukraine. The enemy is being prepared for the offensive in eastern Ukraine.
The main efforts of the Russian invaders continue to focus on the capture of Mariupol, the offensive in the area of the city of Izyum, breakthroughs in the defense of the Joint Forces in the Donetsk direction. In the South Buh direction, the Russian enemy is trying to prevent the advance of our troops.
The Armed Forces of Belarus carry out operational and combat training activities at training grounds throughout the country. Up to four battalion tactical groups have been involved to carry out tasks to strengthen the protection of the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.
There is still a possibility of missile and air strikes from the territory of the Republic of Belarus on military and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
According to the available information, the so-called “volunteers” from among Belarusians are being recruited from the territory of the Republic of Belarus to create new units of a private military company. The information is being clarified.
The enemy completes the restoration of combat capability of units of the Central Military District in the Bryansk and Kursk regions.
Separate units of the 6th, 20th All-Army, 1st Tank Army, Coastal Troops of the Baltic and Northern Fleets carry out operational equipment of the territory. The main focus is on the rehabilitation of railway sections from Kupyansk to Kharkiv, Izyum and Svatove. For this purpose, units of the railway troops of the 38th separate railway brigade of the Western Military District from Yaroslavl were involved.
In the Kharkiv direction, the Russian enemy continues to blockade the city of Kharkiv. To prevent the advance of our troops, the invaders put up minefields.
In the temporarily occupied city of Izyum, representatives of the so-called "DPR" perform the functions of the local "police", carry out illegal checks of documents, searches of persons and premises of the local population.
Units of the occupying forces are concentrating their efforts on taking control of the settlements of Popasna and Rubizhne and establishing control over the city of Mariupol. Assault operations continue in most areas.
The enemy continues to launch air strikes and shell civilian infrastructure, including the use of multiple rocket launchers. Such activities have been recorded in the districts of Kreminna, Severodonetsk, Novotoshkivske, Popasna, Novozvanivka, Sukha Balka, Novoselivka Druha, Stepne, Troitske, Novobahmutivka, Marinka and Solodke.
In the areas of the settlements of Rubizhne, Popasna, Nyzhne, Novotoshkivske, Zolote and Borivske, the occupiers tried to carry out assault operations, but were unsuccessful.
In the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, seven enemy attacks were repulsed in the past 24 hours, four tanks, two artillery systems, ten armored units and eleven enemy vehicles were destroyed.
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine
On April 7, 4,676 people were evacuated.
On April 8, 10 humanitarian corridors were agreed.
As a result of full-scale Russian aggression, Ukraine has become one of the largest mined areas in the world. Due to the great danger, many cities and towns are very difficult to reach. The authorities are now doing everything possible to eliminate the remnants of shells, missiles, clear a large number of mines - and give the opportunity to regularly deliver to the inhabitants of such settlements medicines, water, food, basic necessities.
UNICEF organization, together with the Ukrainian Government, has developed and adopted a resolution launching a program of additional assistance to address pressing issues in the place of relocation of Ukrainians.
Within the framework of the program the following categories of the population are entitled to additional payments in the form of financial assistance:
- families with three or more children, of which at least one child is aged under two;
- families with two or more children, of which at least one child has a disability.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
A targeted missile strike by the enemy on the Kramatorsk railway station killed 39 people, 4 of whom were children, and 87 civilians were injured.
The Russian army used a high-precision “Iskander” missile.
Thousands of people were at the station during the enemy attack, as residents of Donetsk region were being evacuated to safer areas.
Due to the large number of injured, local hospitals are unable to provide assistance to all victims. Doctors sought help from medical workers in the surrounding villages.
The goal of the occupiers is to spread panic among the population and disrupt the evacuation so that as many civilians as possible remain hostages in the region.
The rocket attack on Kramatorsk station is another act of genocide of the Ukrainian people and a horrible war crime and a crime against humanity in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Articles 6-8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Every day new crimes of the army of executioners of the Russian Federation in the liberated territories are recorded.
During the occupation of the village of Husarivka, Izyum district, the Russian military tortured and then set fire to three local residents. In order to destroy the traces of their crimes, the Russians covered their bodies before setting fire to the tires of the car. The burnt fragments of the bodies of three people were found in the basement of one of the houses on April 7, after the liberation of the village
In the village of Obukhovychi in the Kyiv region, which has been under Russian occupation, about 150 people of all ages, including children and pensioners, were driven into the gym of a local school by peasants. People were kept under fire for 24 hours.
In Borodyanka, people's bodies continue to be pulled out from under the rubble. As a result of shelling by the occupying army, thousands of citizens found themselves under the rubble of destroyed houses. The enemy did not allow Ukrainian rescuers to dismantle the debris, effectively condemning people to a long and painful death - without water, food, in the cold and opaque darkness.
Such actions of the terrorist army of the Russian Federation fall under the definition of the crime of "genocide" in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Yesterday morning, on the shores of the Kakhovka Reservoir near the Svitanok recreation center in Maryansky, Kryvyi Rih district, enemy shot a boat sailing from Pervomaivka in the Kherson region to evacuate people from the occupied part of the Kherson region.
People who were only 70 meters from the shore were fired at by the "Hail" multiple rocket launcher, which has a range of tens of kilometers.
There were 14 people in the boat, three children and 11 adults, two adult men and a woman died at once, a 13-year-old child died shortly afterwards, seven people were hospitalized, including children aged 4 and 16, and two civilians were missing.
The deliberate and brutal killing of civilians and children is a war crime and a crime against humanity under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols.
Russian media began to publish information about the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation to amend the legislation to organize an accelerated procedure for the adoption of children from Donbass.
It is reported that the State Duma is already working on appropriate amendments to the legislation, after which the replacement of the family for the child will be impossible.
According to various sources, more than 121,000 children have already been forcibly deported to the Russian Federation. These are both orphans and those who have parents.
It is now known that some of the children were taken by the occupiers from Mariupol to Donetsk and in the direction of Taganrog.
Russian invaders say they are orphans, but all orphans, including orphanages, were evacuated from Mariupol and centralized on February 24-25 during the first two days of the war.
Ukraine has no proved information that children who are planned to be adopted have the status of orphans or deprived of parental care.
Russia is repeating the scenario of 2014, when it took Ukrainian children out of the occupied Crimea by the so-called "train of hope" for their adoption.
Russia has been expelled from the European Network of Ombudsmen for Children's Rights (ENOC) for abducting children from the Crimean Peninsula.
Now enemy, firing rockets and tanks at the homes of Ukrainian citizens, are killing parents and kidnapping our children in the occupied territories of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Such actions of the Russian Federation are a gross violation of Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that every child has the right to a name and citizenship, as well as the right to know their parents and the right to care, Article 49 of the Geneva Convention on Civil Protection population during the war, which prohibits forced individual or mass resettlement or deportation.
In addition, Article 21 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that adoption in another country may be considered only as an alternative means of caring for a child if the child cannot be placed in foster care or to a family that could provide for her or him upbringing or adoption in the country of origin.
POLICY
President of Ukraine
Speech by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Eduskunta, the Parliament of Finland
I'll start with what happened this morning.
The Russian military struck at the railway station in our city of Kramatorsk. At the usual train station. At the ordinary people, there were no militaries. At the people who were waiting for trains to leave to a safe area. They hit people with missiles. There are witnesses, there are videos, there are remnants of missiles, but there are no more people. At least 30 dead. About 300 wounded. This is for now.
Once again: this is an ordinary train station. An ordinary city in the east of our state. That's how Russia came to "defend" Donbas. That's how Russia came to "protect" Russian-speaking people. This is how we live for the 44th day. After 8 years of war in the east of our country.
Russia has sent all its combat capable forces from all over their territory up to the Far East to seize Ukraine. But even they were not enough. That is why Russia is gathering as many people as possible who are capable of holding weapons in order to continue the aggression against Ukraine. Looking for mercenaries around the world. Sending militants from various de facto terrorist groups and so-called "private armies" created by some Russian officials. We have seen so many of them among the captured Russian military.
Both very experienced killers and very young boys born in 2003-2004. But none of them could adequately explain why they need this war against Ukraine, what is the purpose of these missile strikes at civilians, what is the purpose of the cruelty that the world saw in Bucha and other cities liberated by the Ukrainian army.
Of course, among the nearly two hundred thousand Russian occupiers on our land were those who did their best not to fight. Who fled to Russia, who deliberately surrendered, who inflicted severe injuries on themselves to get to the hospital and leave the war zone.
But still it was a minority. And the majority of their army continues war on our land for no apparent reason. Absolutely pointless. And as cruel as possible. Continues to fight in a way that you often think - are they people at all?
Yesterday, the Russian military fired from artillery at a boat with civilians on the Kakhovka reservoir. People were just trying to escape from the occupied territories. But they were hit by "Grad". Three children, eleven adults. On the boat. In the middle of the reservoir. Tens of meters from the shore. And they are being hit by artillery...
Hundreds and hundreds of cars with gunshot traces remained on all roads of our country in the areas where Russian troops entered. Ordinary cars of ordinary people who just wanted to live. The Russian military knew for sure that those were ordinary civilians. They saw that there was no threat. But they fired.
There are many examples of such cars with people who were simply crushed by armored vehicles. Literally - crushed by tanks.
You all know what the Russian military has done in our city of Bucha. But they still make such Buchas every day - from Kramatorsk to Mariupol, from Kharkiv to Kherson.
And I'm sure you realize that if the Russian army is ordered to invade your land, they will do the same to your country. I do not wish you this. They will do what happened in Bucha to your cities. To the cities of any country that the leadership of the Russian Federation decides is allegedly part of their empire, not the land of another nation.
And even if Russian soldiers do not understand why they need it, they will still be at war. Because it is hatred and contempt for other people that are being brought up now in Russia at the state level.
You have already seen in your history the cruelty and absurdity of the invasion of Russia. Let's be honest: the threat remains. Everything must be done to prevent this from happening again.
Russia's war against Ukraine is now deciding not only the fate of our state. Not only the fate of our people. But the fate of all those who have a common border with Russia.
Like you 83 years ago, Ukraine has the courage to defend itself against the enemy whose forces far outnumber them. There are just a lot of them, in quantitative terms. They have a lot of equipment and a lot of missiles. A lot of people who can be thrown into the war. And a lot of dollars and euros earned from oil trade that are then spent on propaganda of aggression.
But just as your courage saved your country from Stalin's invasion, our courage resists this invasion. For 44 days already. But much remains to be done to win.
Of course, unlike before World War II, the democratic world has now realized that the expansion of tyranny cannot be ignored. If the people are fighting for freedom, they must be supported. But, unfortunately, this understanding is more common among nations than among some very influential politicians. Among smaller states than among some leading states.
We still have to convince the world's powerful states on a daily basis that sanctions against Russia that it will not be able to circumvent and that will definitely stop its military machine are necessary. We still have to ask for the necessary help, for the necessary weapons. And we are still told that we still have to wait for the aircraft, anti-missile systems, tanks, anti-ship weapons.
We are told that we have to wait while we are losing hundreds of people every day from Russian strikes. When dozens of our cities are destroyed. We have to wait while more than ten million Ukrainians have become IDPs. And we have to wait. When more than three million of these ten left our country...
We must do everything together so that they can return home. We must do everything to stop Russia, to stop the war! So that peace is restored in Ukraine, and the Russian occupiers leave our sovereign territory. This cannot be delayed, ladies and gentlemen.
We are told that we have to wait... But I have a question: should both those who kill our people and those who make us wait be held jointly accountable for the deaths of Ukrainians? Those who make us wait for the most necessary. Wait for the opportunity to defend ourselves, our life, wait for the weapons.
I am sincerely grateful to Finland for not delaying when this invasion by the Russian Federation began. For coming to our aid immediately. For the fact that you made a historic decision to provide Ukraine with defense support. For being principled in sanctions matters. For being one of the moral leaders of our anti-war coalition.
But I ask you to show even greater leadership, both at the level of the European Union and in bilateral relations with European countries, to support our struggle for freedom. For our common freedom.
When this war continues, when tyranny loses the war against Ukraine, it will be one of the greatest contributions to Europe's security in decades. Consequently, one of the greatest contributions to the security of your state. That is why we need the weapons that your EU partners have. That is why we need truly effective, powerful sanctions against Russia. Permanent. Such a sanction cocktail, which will be remembered as Molotov cocktails. Insist on it!
I am grateful to the Finnish companies that have already stopped working in the Russian market.
But economic ties with this country must be severed, and I urge you to put pressure on all your companies that continue to support the Russian military machine through their taxes and excise duties in Russia. All Russian banks must be immediately isolated from the global financial system.
We cannot limit ourselves to a partial response to Russia's threat to Europe and the democratic world, because freedom will not survive if the channels of nourishing tyranny are left. And we need to think together about how to protect Europe from Russia's energy weapons.
Every educated person knows that the time of fossil fuels has passed. Mankind can no longer rely on coal, on oil. We need to look for cleaner energy sources for everyone. And if Russia uses energy to finance aggression against other nations and the spread of hatred in the world, it should be an additional incentive. This should speed up the decision-making process.
How much longer will Europe ignore the need to impose an embargo on oil supplies from Russia? This is a matter of security in all senses of the word - from environmental to military.
And I urge you to ask this question out loud to everyone in the European Union. So that the necessary decision finally appears. The world knows the formats of how to do it. And if Europe does not want to physically cut off supplies now, if it is not ready, although it is inevitable, the first step must be to apply a scheme to limit the flow of money for oil into Russia. Let this money accumulate on special accounts without Russia's access to it. Let Russia first restore peace and be held accountable for war crimes, and only then take its dollars and euros from oil trade. Let it remember the spirit of Helsinki and restore the Helsinki Accords in full, and only then will it be possible to discuss the economy, if necessary.
And when we say that we need to stop the war, it is clear to all cultures and it is clear in all languages. When I say this in Ukrainian, it seems to me that there are no people who do not understand this. The same goes for German, Arabic, Chinese or any other language.
Peace is the same value for all. War is the same evil for all.
I believe that common sense will still prevail. I am confident that together we will be able to defend freedom and defend Ukraine. That is why we need to think now about how to rebuild our state after this war.
The world knows about the leadership of your country, your people in the field of education. You have really built an educational system that allows you to protect personal freedom, make a person educated and teach respect for other people, the environment and the world. Other countries should learn this, too!
During the month and a half of the Russian invasion, 928 educational institutions in Ukraine have already been destroyed or damaged. These are kindergartens, these are schools, these are universities. I invite your state, your companies, your specialists to join the restoration of our educational sector and the modernization of education in Ukraine. We must do everything we can to ensure that, even after this brutal war against our nation, our people continue to cultivate goodness in their hearts and stay open to the world. I believe in that.
Because hatred must lose. Freedom must win. First - in Ukraine, and then - wherever tyranny will try to raise its head.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
The world is responding to Russia's unjustified war by expelling Russian diplomats.
Since the beginning of Russia's invasion in Ukraine, the partner states have expelled 443 Russian diplomatic staff. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic significantly reduced the diplomatic presence of the aggressor state even before Russia started a full-scale war.
This step is an act of solidarity with Ukraine, a continuation of efforts to strengthen Russia's global isolation.
The expulsion of diplomats was the partners' coordinated response to the subversive espionage activities of Russian diplomats.
For years, Russian diplomats have been spreading propaganda narratives in an attempt to distort reality and hide the Kremlin's true face. The expulsion of diplomats is democratic society's direct response to the crimes of the Russian regime.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the partners to apply maximum pressure on Russia to stop its barbaric war against Ukraine.
5149 crimes of aggression and war crimes by Russia have been already registered by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
46 UNESCO member states will boycott World Heritage Committee meetings chaired by the Russian Federation.
The 45th session of the World Heritage Committee was planned in Kazan, Russia. The parties of the 1972 World Heritage Convention signed an open letter refusing to participate in the meeting due to Russia's systematic violation of international humanitarian law in Ukraine.
"A civilized world that understands the value of cultural identity for the country is in solidarity with Ukraine. UNESCO must prevent Russia from chairing the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, and must postpone it from Kazan. Russian Federation, which strikes at our churches, museums, monuments, theaters under any circumstances have no moral right to continue to be called a member of an organization whose purpose is to take care of culture. Instead, we are happy to organize a committee in Lviv, " underlined minister Oleksandr Tkachenko
The signatory countries are shocked by Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine. Many people died, in some places entire cities were destroyed.
Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine called on UNESCO to move the 45th session from Kazan, Russia, to Lviv, Ukraine, and to exclude the Russian Federation from the organization.