Russian leader, Vladimir Putin has stated that peace talks with Ukraine is ‘dead’

 
According to Putin, without a deal acceptable to Russia, his forces would continue their offensive against Ukraine .

Putin’s statement on Tuesday, April 12 comes as Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian military positions and residential areas in the country’s east and unleashed new rocket attacks.

In his first comments on the war in almost a month, Putin said that peace talks had stalled after what he called a “fake” situation in Bucha, a town outside of Kyiv where Ukrainian officials reported the discovery of several hundred dead civilians this month after Russian troops retreated.

Ukrainian and Western officials are pursuing investigations into potential war crimes committed in Bucha and in other formerly Russian-held towns in northern Ukraine before Moscow’s withdrawal at the end of March.

Ukrainian authorities are also investigating allegations by Ukrainian forces that they came under a Russian chemical attack in Mariupol, where Russia is still fighting to consolidate gains. 

Putin also said Ukrainian negotiators had “deviated from agreements” reached in Istanbul.

 Ukraine last month presented its proposal for a neutral status and international security guarantees, but the two sides involved in the conflict – Ukraine and Russia, haven’t moved closer toward a potential cease-fire.

“We have again returned to a dead-end situation,” Putin said.

 “Inconsistency about essential matters has been creating well-known difficulties in achieving final agreements on the negotiating track which would be acceptable to us. Unless that happens, the military operation will continue until it concludes and the objectives set at the beginning of this operation are achieved.”

 Putin said the main goal of the offensive was “to help people in Donbas,” in another sign that his forces would launch an assault on the eastern region. He added that “there is no doubt” the goal will be achieved, speaking during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport in the country’s Far East, along with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that high-precision air- and sea-based missiles launched overnight destroyed an ammunition depot and a hangar with Ukrainian aircraft at the Starokostiantyniv military airfield in the western Khmelnytskyi region, as well as an ammunition depot near Havrylivka in the Kyiv region. 

While the Ukrainian Air Force said it had downed a Russian plane, two helicopters and four drones.

President Joe Biden has signed legislation blocking Russian oil from being imported into the U.S. and severing all trade relations with the country over its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden signed two bills on Friday seeking to further isolate Russia economically as the U.S. maintains pressure on Moscow to end its invasion of Ukraine. The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress, will work to strike an economic artery of energy-rich Russia while relegating the country to the same trade status as Myanmar, Cuba and North Korea.

While Biden had earlier signed an executive order banning imports of Russian oil and gas, House Resolution 6968 codifies the ban into law.

The second bill, H.R. 7108, goes further by suspending normal trade relations with Russia and its ally Belarus. The bill also directs the U.S. trade representative to take steps to suspend Russia’s participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“We know that it will not immediately end the fund of the Putin war machine, but it is a step in the right direction,” Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett, a sponsor of the Russian oil ban, said on the House floor Wednesday.

He noted that it took “six long weeks” to approve the legislation after negotiations with the Senate. As the bills made their way through both chambers, some Republican lawmakers questioned the effectiveness of cutting off Russian oil imports, suggesting they could strengthen the country’s ties to China while increasing gas prices.

Importing or exporting $5.6 trillion worth of goods and services in 2019, the U.S. is the world’s largest trading nation, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Countries with a permanent normal trade relations designation have advantages in conducing commerce with the U.S., such as reduced tariffs. The U.S. has used the designation to influence countries on human rights issues.

The passage of the bills comes as U.S. officials have voiced growing alarm of alleged human rights violations committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Biden has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to stand trial for war crimes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the U.S. and the European Union to ratchet up sanctions against Russia to end its invasion.

Democratic Representative Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, hailed the passage of both bills, saying in a statement they’ll “hold the Putin regime responsible for its campaign of terror against the Ukrainian people.”

Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of carrying out ‘hundreds of rapes’ including sexual assaults on small children.

Putin’s soldiers have been linked to a string of horrific atrocities across Ukraine, including the brutal rape and murder of women and children, often in front of their own family members. Moscow has denied the claims.

Speaking to Lithuanian lawmakers today, Zelensky said: ‘In areas freed from the occupiers, the recording and investigation of war crimes committed by Russia continues. New mass graves are found almost daily.

‘Testimonials are being collected. Thousands and thousands of victims. Hundreds of cases of torture. Bodies continue to be found in drains and cellars.

‘Hundreds of cases of rape have been recorded, including those of young girls and very young children. Even of a baby!’ 

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda responded saying, ‘It’s simply impossible to imagine a greater horror.’

Kateryna Cherepakha, president of La Strada-Ukraine, said her organisation’s emergency hotlines had received calls accusing Russian soldiers of nine cases of rape involving 12 women and girls.

She told the UN: ‘This is just the tip of the iceberg. We know and see – and we want you to hear our voices – that violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine.’

An 11-year-old boy is among the alleged victims after he was reportedly raped by Russian troops in front of his mother who was tied to a chair and forced to watch.

Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova said the boy was attacked in Bucha where scores of dead civilians showing signs of torture were found weeks after it was recaptured.

Denisova also claimed that five soldiers in Putin’s army raped a 14-year-old girl who has become pregnant.  She said an estimated 120,000 Ukrainian children were rounded up and kidnapped, with some raped and others smuggled over to Russia.

On April 8, a 16-year-old girl and 78-year-old woman were among those raped, official Oleksandr Vilkul claimed. 

Meanwhile, one of Putin’s soldiers has been arrested after footage emerged of him allegedly raping a baby in Ukraine.

Alexei Bychkov, 24, sent the vile footage to a Russian comrade before he was detained on Saturday, it was reported.

The soldier is said to have shared other videos of his abuse of children to other friends and colleagues.

Elsewhere in Bucha, 25 girls and woman aged 14 to 25 were ‘systematically’ raped while being held captive in a basement, it has been claimed. Nine of the women are now pregnant.

Denisova said: ‘Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children.’ 

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old woman who lives 45 miles from Kyiv said a Chechen soldier barged into the home she shared with her husband on March 7.

She told the BBC: ‘At gunpoint, he took me to a house nearby. He ordered me: ‘Take your clothes off or I’ll shoot you.’ He kept threatening to kill me if I didn’t do as he said. Then he started raping me.

‘While he was raping me, four more soldiers entered. I thought that I was done for. But they took him away. I never saw him again.’ 

Russia has warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato, saying the move would not bring stability to Europe.

Nato was formed in 1949 to counter the threat of Soviet expansion and domination, and since the fall of the Berlin wall a number of formerly communist eastern European countries have joined the military alliance.

Member states agree to come to one another’s aid in the event of an armed attack against any individual member state.

Back in February Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, warned of “military and political consequences” if the countries joined the bloc.

And on  Monday, April 11, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the alliance remains a tool geared towards confrontation” and thst Moscow is clear when it comes to opposing any potential enlargement of the alliance. 

 Peskov warned the bloc “is not that kind of alliance which ensures peace and stability, and its further expansion will not bring additional security to the European continent”.

The warning by Russia comes  as US defence officials expect Sweden and Finland to bid for membership of the alliance, potentially as early as June saying Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been a “massive strategic blunder” which is likely to bring Nato enlargement.

The move would see the Western alliance grow to 32 members and US State Department officials said last week that discussions had taken place between Nato leaders and foreign ministers from Helsinki and Stockholm.

Before Russia invades Ukraine, Russia demanded that the alliance agree to halt any future enlargement, but the war has led to the deployment of more Nato troops on its eastern flank and a rise in public support for Swedish and Finnish membership.

Finnish lawmakers are expected to receive a security report from intelligence officials this week, and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she expects her government “will end the discussion before midsummer” on whether to make a membership application.

Finland shares a 1,340km (830 miles) long border with Russia and has been angered by the invasion of Ukraine.

While Sweden’s ruling Social Democratic party, which has traditionally opposed Nato membership, said it is rethinking this position in light of Russia’s attack on its western neighbour. Party secretary Tobias Baudin told local media that the Nato review should be complete within the next few months.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden’s security position changed fundamentally,” the party said in a statement on Monday.

Also both countries stepped up defence spending since the invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, army leaders in Helsinki announced a new plan to allocate €14m (£10.88m) to purchase drones for Finland’s military.

And last month Swedish officials said they would boost defence spending by three billion kronas ($317m; £243m) in 2022.

The Warsaw government panel has�claimed that Russia�was behind a 2010 plane crash that killed 96 including the Polish leader Lech Kaczynski.�

The latest report today released by the special commission alleges that the April 10, 2010 crash was caused by an intentional detonation of planted explosives.�

The plane crash killed Mr. Kaczynski, the first lady, and 94 other members of the government and armed forces as well as many other prominent Polish figures.�

Commission head Antoni Macierewicz today told a news conference that their deaths were caused by an ‘act of unlawful interference by the Russian side.’�

Mr. Macierwicz, who in 2015-2018 served as defense minister in Poland’s right-wing government, added:�’The main and indisputable proof of the interference was an explosion in the left-wing ? followed by an explosion in the plane’s centre.’

And he denied that there were any mistakes made by Polish pilots or crew members, despite there being bad weather at the time of the crash.��

The new report repeats numerous previous allegations made by the commission, appointed by the government whose key figure is the main ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin of the late president.��

Yesterday, Polish President Andrzej Duda stood at Pilsudski Square to place a candle at the monument to the victims of the plane crash. It was part of the ceremonies commemorating the 12th anniversary of the crash.�

Today’s new report comes as Russia’s war unleashed on Poland’s neighbouring country Ukraine rages on and amid current tense relations between Moscow and Warsaw.�

Poland is supporting Ukraine in its battle against Russia and is calling for tough sanctions on Moscow after its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost his ninth colonel as tank commander becomes the latest senior Russian officer to be killed in the ongoing Ukraine war

A funeral was held for Colonel Alexander Bespalov on Friday in the closed Russian city of Ozersk, according to a local announcement, which said he was killed ‘during a special military operation in Ukraine.’ a term used by Moscow to avoid saying ‘war’.

The statement said Bespalov was the commander of the 59th Guards Tank Regiment, and become the latest senior Russian military officer to be killed in the war that has seen Kyiv’s forces surprise exerts with their fierce resistance.

In addition, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence estimates that Russia has sent more than 19,000 troops to their deaths. Meanwhile, thousands of Moscow’s soldiers have retreated from the Kyiv region to refocus Russia’s military efforts on eastern Ukraine.

However, a senior U.S. defense official said Friday that the Pentagon has determined that some of the Russian combat units that retreated from the Kyiv area in recent days are so heavily damaged and depleted that their combat utility is in question. 

Some analysts have suggested that the focus on the Donbas and the pledge to de-escalate may merely be an effort to put a positive spin on reality: Moscow’s ground forces have been thwarted – and have taken heavy losses – in their bid to seize the capital and other major cities.

The Kremlin has a policy of playing down military casualties with a 2015 decree declaring all deaths in conflict a state secret, and last year any statement discrediting the military were criminalised. 

The announcement of his funeral has since been deleted. Ozersk is a closed Russian city, meaning travel in and out is heavily restricted. 

One tribute, from the colonel’s sister, said: ‘It is impossible to put into words what pain you feel when you lose a close and dear person,’ Tatyana Karsakova, wrote. ‘Dear brother, you will always be alive in our hearts!’

A fellow officer said: ‘I did not know and did not meet a more worthy person who had the right to call himself an officer than my first commander Alexander Bespalov, who became my friend, whose family I was closely acquainted with.’

The luxurious gold-plated penthouse home of Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s daughter has been revealed for the first time.   

Luiza Rozova, 19, is the secret daughter of Putin’s ‘former lover’ Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, a cleaner-turned-multimillionaire who now owns a stake in a major Russian bank.

Luiza and Krivonogikh now reportedly want to rent out the St Petersburg apartment for $10,000 a month including utility charges.

Estate agent, Engel & Volkers released photos showing a giant chandelier while the children’s room features an intricately painted ceiling.

 Luiza, unlike Putin’s two older daughters, has not been sanctioned by the UK and US.

The student was once active on social media and made her accounts private after being bombarded by a wave of abuses following the war in Ukraine launched by Putin.

Putin has not publicly acknowledged his daughter, also known as Elizaveta or Luiza Krivonogikh.

More photos below…

The United Nations General Assembly has suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council after high-profile allegations of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers during the war in Ukraine.

The measure suspends Russia’s membership in the Council and would launch a review of the matter if the UN deems it appropriate.

The United States ambassador to the United Nations made a case for seeking the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council in front of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, something she and other UN member states have been pushing.

“Russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose purpose — whose very purpose — is to promote respect for human rights. Not only is it the height of hypocrisy — it is dangerous,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

“Every day, we see more and more how little Russia respects human rights,” she said.

 “Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council hurts the Council’s credibility. It undermines the entire UN. And it is just plain wrong.”

On Thursday, April 7 the UN general council voted with 93 countries in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions.

A draft of the resolution says the General Assembly may “suspend the rights of membership in the Human Rights Council of a member of the Council that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

The draft resolution adds that the council has “grave concern” regarding reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” and “violations of international humanitarian law” committed by the Russian Federation during its invasion of Ukraine.

The General Assembly needed to vote in favor by two-thirds of the countries present before Russia could be removed from the UN Human Rights Council. 

Before the vote, the deputy Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Gennady Kuzmin, called on member states to reject the resolution, saying it would set a “a dangerous precedent.”

“Today is not the time nor the place for theatrics, or these kinds of extremely theatrical performances like the one presented by Ukraine. In fact the draft resolution we are considering today has no relationship to the actual human rights situation on the ground,” Kuzmin said.

The Russian representative said the vote on suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council “is an attempt by the United States to maintain its dominant position and total control to continue its attempt at human rights colonialism in international relations.”

Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that Russia’s suspension sends “a crystal-clear message” that they have “no business” on the council.

“The General Assembly has sent a crystal-clear message to Russia’s leadership that a government whose military is routinely committing horrific rights violations has no business on the UN Human Rights Council,” Charbonneau said.

 “Gruesome images from Bucha have shocked people around the world. Victims and their families deserve to see those responsible held to account. Investigators from the UN and International Criminal Court should set the wheels of justice in motion by moving swiftly to gather and preserve evidence of war crimes.”

A Ukranian artist, Daria Marchenko, has painstakingly created an eight feet tall mosaic of the Russian President Vladimir Putin entitled by the artist as “THE FACE OF WAR”.

The mosaic was made with 5000 empty bullet shells picked from the streets of Ukraine.

During an interview, Marchenko explained that the art work was inspired by the ongoing unprovoked war declared by President Putin against her country.

The war has witnessed a catastrophic humanity crisis in the Eastern European country since its inception earlier this year.

What is the casualty stats of the Russia – Ukraine war?

The United Nations’ human rights office, meanwhile, has recorded 977 civilian deaths and 1,594 injured in Ukraine since the conflict began, it said Wednesday — figures that it concedes are incomplete and fall far short of the likely tolls.

So far, some 4.2 million have left the country for neighbouring countries from the war-torn country itself.

At least 6.5 million people are estimated to have been internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the United Nations Protection Cluster.

In total, more than ten million people are already thought to have fled their homes in Ukraine both internally and externally because of the invasion, according to the United Nations.

While the fiercest hostilities continue in eastern Ukraine, the conflict has expanded with attacks escalating in the west, including only 25km away from Poland’s border.

Tori Media reported earlier that a railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, was hit by a missile killing at least 30 people.

Reacting to the attack, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that it was a “Tochka U” rocket launched by “Russian monsters” that caused the damage.

As one zooms into the photo of the mosaic, one will be forced to realise why Edgar Degas, the 19th century French artist philosopher famously said: “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

See the full portrait of “The Face of War” below

Israeli security forces have found and killed the suspect who shot dead two people and wounded more in a Tel Aviv bar Thursday night, following an hours-long manhunt involving over 100 officers.

The 28-year-old Palestinian suspect was found near a mosque in Jaffa – just outside Tel Aviv itself – sparking a firefight in which he was killed.

Mayor Ron Huldai claimed earlier the gunman had “nationalistic” motives, and follows a string of Palestinian attacks last week that killed 11 people.

The Russian government has finally admitted it experienced losses during its invasion of Ukraine.

During the war which has entered its 44th day, the Russian government had played down claims by Ukraine that it has suffered losses on the battle field.

On 25 March, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said 1,351 of its soldiers had been killed in combat. Ukraine puts the Russian deaths at almost 19,000.

Western leaders believe that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

Now, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has admitted that Russia has suffered”significant losses of troops” in Ukraine saying the losses were a “huge tragedy”.

He told British channel Sky News that he hoped Moscow would reach its war goals “in the coming days”.

Peskov who serves as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson since 2000, also claimed that Russia is searching for ways to end the war.

“Our military are doing their best to bring an end to that operation,” he said. “And we do hope that in coming days, in the foreseeable future, this operation will reach its goals or will finish it by the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegation.”

Russia has pulled troops away from Kyiv and shifted most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine – but the fighting shows no signs of ending.

Speaking to Russia’s parliament, the state Duma, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin admitted that the cumulative impact of extensive sanctions means the country is facing its worst economic outlook in decades.

“No doubt, the current situation could be called the most difficult in three decades for Russia,” he said. “Such sanctions were not used even in the darkest times of the Cold War.”

Russian troops talked about killing civilians in Bucha over the radio, Der Spiegel found.

The radio transmissions were obtained by German intelligence and presented in parliament Wednesday.

They contradict Russian claims that the atrocities found in the Ukrainian town were staged.

Germany intercepted radio transmissions of Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in the town of Bucha, contradicting Russian propaganda claims of a hoax, according to a report by Der Spiegel.

The radio transmissions were obtained by the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany’s foreign intelligence service, and presented to parliament on Wednesday, Der Spiegel reported.

In one of the recordings, a Russian soldier could be heard describing how he shot someone off their bicycle, Der Spiegel reported.

It is unclear what day the radio messages were sent and where the Russian troops were at the time.

Footage and images of people killed, with some on the street, in Bucha emerged earlier this week after Russian forces left the town.

On Tuesday, The New York Times published independently verified aerial footage that shows a Russian armored vehicle shooting at a civilian on a bicycle in Bucha. It is unclear whether the person in the video was the same as the one referred to in the radio messages.

The audio recordings also suggest that the Russian mercenary military, the Wagner Group, played a key role in the atrocities in Bucha, Der Spiegel reported.

It is not entirely clear who runs or finances the Wagner Group, but the US and European Union have linked Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to the organization.

The group has been tied to Russian separatists in the pro-Kremlin Donbas region since 2014, as well as accused of committing war crimes and human-rights abuses in Syria in 2015.

Western intelligence said last month that as many as 1,000 of the group’s mercenaries were being deployed to eastern Ukraine.

Russia has denied responsibility for the atrocities in Bucha, claiming without evidence that the footage coming out of Bucha is staged or otherwise manipulated.

On Tuesday, the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti ran an opinion column that speculated the killings were a ploy by Western nations to impose further sanctions on Russia.

This timeline undermines Russia’s claim that the Bucha killings were a Ukrainian hoax.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine tweeted the Spiegel report on Thursday, writing: “Radio intercepts by the German Intelligence, show that the massacre of civilians in Bucha was not accidental or actions of rogue soldiers.”

[Source: Business Insider]

Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in a milestone for the United States and a victory for President Joe Biden, who made good on a campaign promise as he seeks to infuse the federal judiciary with a broader range of backgrounds.

The vote to confirm the 51-year-old federal appellate judge to a lifetime job on the nation’s top judicial body was 53-47, with three Republicans – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney – joining Biden’s fellow Democrats. A simple majority was needed, as Jackson overcame Republican opposition in a Supreme Court confirmation process that remains fiercely partisan.

Jackson will take the 83-year-old Breyer’s place on the liberal bloc of a court with an increasingly assertive 6-3 conservative majority. Breyer is due to serve until the court’s current term ends – usually in late June – and Jackson would be formally sworn in after that. Jackson served early in her career as a Supreme Court clerk for Breyer.

Democrat Raphael Warnock, one of the Senate’s three Black members, said in debate before the vote: “I’m the father of a young Black girl. I know how much it means for Judge Jackson to have navigated the double jeopardy of racism and sexism to now stand in the glory of this moment. … Seeing Judge Jackson ascend to the Supreme Court reflects the promise of progress on which our democracy rests. What a great day it is in America.”

Of the 115 people who have served on the Supreme Court since its 1789 founding, all but three have been white. It has had two Black justices, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 and still serving, and Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991 and died in 1993. Current Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the only Hispanic ever to serve on it. Jackson is set to become the sixth woman justice ever.

Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court have become a flashpoint in American politics. The court wields great influence in shaping American policy on hot-button issues including abortion, guns, voting laws, LGBT rights, religious liberty, the death penalty and race-based practices.

Before Jackson joins the bench, the Supreme Court is due to rule in major cases including one that could overturn the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide and another that could expand gun rights.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, criticized Jackson in the debate before the vote, calling her the choice of the “radical left” and saying her “disturbing” judicial record included injecting personal policy biases in rulings and treating convicted criminals as gently as possible in sentencing.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the first Black woman to hold that post after Biden selected her as his 2020 election running mate, presided over the vote. A Harris spokesperson said the vice president believes Jackson will become an “exceptional” justice.

‘EQUAL JUSTICE’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the country’s legacy of slavery and past struggles to bring rights to women and Black Americans, adding: “Today we are taking a giant, bold and important step on the well-trodden path toward fulfilling our country’s founding promise.”

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said, “We are beginning to write another chapter in our nation’s quest for equal justice under the law, and that chapter begins with three letters: KBJ,” using her initials.

Biden appointed Jackson last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after she spent eight years as a federal district judge. Like the three conservative justices appointed by the Democrat Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump, Jackson is young enough to serve for decades in the lifetime job.

During her March confirmation hearings, Jackson said what she hopes to bring to the Supreme Court is similar to what the prior 115 justices have delivered: their own life experiences and perspectives. She said hers included time as a federal judge, a court-appointed lawyer for criminal defendants who could not afford an attorney, a member of a federal commission on criminal sentencing and “being a Black woman, lucky inheritor of the civil rights dream.” read more

Jackson noted that she was born in 1970 in the aftermath of congressional passage of major civil rights laws aimed at curbing discrimination against Black people and other minorities and referenced the fact that her parents had experienced lawful racial segregation first-hand in their hometown of Miami.

Biden has aimed to bring more women and minorities and a broader range of backgrounds to the federal judiciary. His appointment of Jackson fulfilled a pledge he made during the 2020 presidential campaign to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

The other women to have served on the Supreme Court include current members Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sotomayor, the retired Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020.

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 that 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 international 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.

World leaders have called for an investigation into whether war crimes, including genocide, were committed.

When Russian troops arrived in Bucha in late February, 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 village 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 that 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 as well as a number of other 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.”

[Source: ABCNews]