World

As Bucha emerges from the horror of the Russian occupation, townspeople are desperate to know the fate of loved ones. Some know how their story ends. Others still wait to find out, hoping against hope it will not end in tragedy.

Tetiana Ustymenko knows the conclusion to her story. Her son and his two friends were gunned down in the street outside and she buried them in the garden of the family home. 

Oleh Onyshchenko is searching for two family members. He arrives on a windswept plain where 50 body bags are laid out on the ground.

His relatives are burnt beyond recognition, he thinks, though a wedding ring may prove a clue to end the mystery of their final moments.

Oleksandr Kovtun still has hope. His son is missing but perhaps, he reasons, the Russians abducted them as they retreated.

Bucha — a commuter town on Kyiv’s doorstep — was occupied by Russian forces in the early days of the invasion.

The horrors left behind after their withdrawal last week are slowly being uncovered.

– Garden burial – 

There is a black sash draped across one door on Kyiv-Myrotska Street. Out front a car riddled with gunfire has a pool of clotted blood in the passenger seat. There are three bodies in the back garden.

Ustymenko, 65, says she put her son Serhii and his friends Nastia and Maksym here on March 4.

Serhii, 25, offered to evacuate her but she was reluctant — it was too dangerous. Without her knowledge he came anyway.

“I heard shooting but I was sure he wasn’t there,” she said. 

“Then the phone turned on. I said, ‘Son, son?’, and a neighbour told me a car was shot in front of him. He said my son is gone.”

Maksym was shot in the forehead by a sniper through the windscreen, she said. Nastia was shot in the legs. Serhii was shot in the back.

They lay in the open for three days before Tetiana’s husband Valerii washed and dressed the bodies and dug a simple grave with the neighbours’ help.

It is at the bottom of the garden past daffodils. There is one mound in the sandy earth, but each body is marked by a sprig of conifer. On top is the metal blade of a broken snow shovel. 

The year before last Serhii snapped it, prompting a squabble with his mother. “I put this here to say ‘Forgive me son’,” she said. “I want him to forgive me for arguing with him for nothing.”

“How can I live now?”

– Searching body bags – 

Onyshchenko arrives to inspect the bodies of Bucha’s war dead at the cemetery. There are around 50, some stacked on top of each other, others lie side by side on the ground in crumpled black body bags.

A gaggle of police officers is poring over paperwork, writing preliminary reports to identify the corpses.

Every few minutes they unzip a new bag. In one, a woman’s arms lie tangled across her lifeless face. In another, rigor mortis gives the impression of a man standing to attention.

Some contain only body parts, scorched and severed.

Onyshchenko, 49, hangs back. In his pocket are photocopies of the ID card of his sister-in-law Tamila, and the birth certificate of her 14-year-old daughter Anna.

They left Bucha in a borrowed car but the owner later saw a video of it ablaze in the street.

He has come to look for distinctive jewellery, to identify what remains of the mother and daughter.

A police officer tucks a handwritten note into one gaping body bag. “Bucha, man, approximately 30-years-old,” it reads. “Eyes open. Bodily injuries on the left side of the abdomen, on the neck and hands.”

“A month ago no-one could imagine something like this was possible,” says Onyshchenko.

– Continuing hope – 

Kovtun’s 19-year-old son Oleksii is missing. “He went into the city and did not come back.”

The 58-year-old now clings to the hope he might have been taken by the Russians.

Another young man from their street is rumoured to have been taken captive in Russia. Maybe this was the fate of his boy too.

“My son knew him,” he says. “There’s no other hope for us.”

On Saturday the bodies of 20 people dressed in civilian clothing were found strewn along a single Bucha street. 

On Sunday a city official said 57 civilians had been buried in a mass grave by their neighbours.

The register of the dead grows day by day.

“We asked around about him, talked with a woman who deals with such cases,” said Kovtun. 

“We hope he is not on those lists.”

Thousands protested across Sudan against military rule on the anniversary Wednesday of previous popular uprisings, most recently against autocrat Omar al-Bashir three years ago. 

Security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in the capital Khartoum, its twin city of Omdurman, and in Wad Madani to the south, witnesses and AFP correspondents said. 

They also “stormed Al-Jawda hospital and fired tear gas inside, scaring patients and health workers and causing suffocation among some of them”, said the independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors. 

Sudan has grappled with an October 25 coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that has derailed a political transition period and hammered the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Pro-democracy activists had warned online of a people power “earthquake of April 6” — a momentous day in Sudan’s history that was key in bringing down earlier strongmen.

In 1985, the day saw the ouster of president Jaafar Nimeiri following a popular uprising. In 2019 it marked the start of a mass sit-in outside army headquarters, after months of protests, against Bashir’s three decades in power.

“It is an important day… so we expect many to take to the streets despite the heat and Ramadan,” the Muslim holy month when the faithful observe a daytime fast, said one Khartoum protester, Badwi Bashir.

“We just want to bring down the coup (leadership) and end the prospect of any future coups.”

At dusk, volunteers were seen distributing water, juice, dates and other food as protesters sat to break their fast in Khartoum and neighbouring cities, AFP correspondents said.

– ‘No to military rule’ –

Sudan’s latest putsch has “set fire to all aspects of life, turning our country into an arena of crises,” said the civilian alliance Forces of Freedom and Change, or FFC.

Security forces had earlier sealed off key bridges and deployed around the presidential palace and army headquarters.

In Omdurman, protesters broke through barbed wire blockades and marched through streets leading to the parliament building, according to an AFP correspondent. 

Protesters marched in the eastern state of Gedaref with banners that read “No to military rule” and “Away with the government of hunger”, said one witness, Ahmed Salah. 

Demonstrations were also held in several cities across the Darfur region, the central state of North Kordofan and the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, according to witnesses. 

Five days after the start of the 2019 sit-in, generals bowed to the pressure on the streets to remove Bashir. 

But the protesters stayed on to press for civilian rule, only to be dispersed in a crackdown in June that year by men in military fatigues that claimed 128 lives according to medics.

Sudan’s civilian and military leaders later agreed on a transition of power, which promised greater international engagement for the country as well as foreign aid and investment.

But last October’s coup upended those plans, leading to the current wave of protests. At least 93 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the crackdown since, medics say.

– Partnership ‘failed’ –

“We have to defeat the coup,” FFC spokesman Jaafar Hassan said last week. 

“We have tried a partnership with the military, and it failed, ending in this coup, and we shouldn’t do this again.”

Burhan said last Saturday he would only “hand over power to an honest, elected authority, accepted by the all the Sudanese people”.

The United States on Wednesday warned against “the use of any violence” and demanded Sudanese authorities “keep their word and hold accountable those responsible for abuses.”

Since the coup, Sudan’s already ailing economy has suffered severe blows, as Western donors cut crucial aid pending the restoration of a transition to civilian rule.

Prices of food, fuel and basic commodities have soared and crime has spiked. Violence has intensified in remote areas, particularly the restive Darfur region, the UN says.

Burhan last week threatened to expel UN special representative Volker Perthes, accusing him of “interference” in the country’s affairs after Perthes warned of the deepening crisis in Sudan during a UN Security Council briefing.

A key member of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party said Wednesday she was quitting his coalition government, in a surprise move that leaves him without a parliamentary majority.

Idit Silman’s announcement left Bennett’s coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats — the same as the opposition.

Although Silman’s defection does not mean the fall of the coalition, it raises the spectre of a potential return to office by veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu, less than a year after he lost the premiership to Bennett. 

“I tried the path of unity. I worked a lot for this coalition,” Silman, a religious conservative who served as coalition chairperson, said in a statement.

“Sadly, I cannot take part in harming the Jewish identity of Israel.”

On Monday, Silman had lashed out at Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, after he instructed hospitals to allow leavened bread products onto their premises during the upcoming Passover holiday, in line with a recent supreme court ruling reversing years of prohibition.

Jewish tradition bars leavened bread from the public domain during Passover.

“I am ending my membership of the coalition and will try to continue to talk my friends into returning home and forming a right-wing government,” Silman said.

“I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.”

– ‘Dangerous instability’ –

Bennett met with leaders of the coalition parties following the announcement.

“All of them want to continue with the government,” he said.

“The alternative is more elections,” he added, warning this could spell “dangerous instability for Israel”.

The most important thing now is to “stabilise” the alliance, Bennett said, accusing Netanyahu supporters of pushing Silman to quit by launching “verbal attacks” against her.

Bennett’s coalition may continue ruling with 60 seats, although with difficulty in passing new legislation.

If another member of the coalition defects, however, the Knesset could hold a vote of no confidence and lead Israel back to the polls for a fifth parliamentary election in four years.

Political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin told AFP that if Silman “is the first person to really prepare to bring down the government, she is doing it from the place of conviction”.

“She is religious, and I think we all underestimate the power of theology,” said Scheindlin. 

In a formal resignation letter, Silman said: “We must admit that we tried. It’s time to recalculate and try to form a national, Jewish, Zionist government.”

– ‘Limp government’ –

Following the announcement, Silman was embraced by the same right-wing politicians who had relentlessly attacked her since she followed Bennett into the governing coalition last year, reneging on campaign promises.

“Idit, you’re proof that what guides you is the concern for the Jewish identity of Israel, the concern for the land of Israel, and I welcome you back home to the national camp,” opposition leader Netanyahu said in a video recording.

“I call on whoever was elected with the votes of the national camp to join Idit and come back home, you’ll be received with all due honour and open arms,” he added.

Thousands of Netanyahu supporters gathered Wednesday evening in Jerusalem, shouting “Bennett, out” and demanding an end to the coalition government, AFP journalists said.

“Tonight, we say to the government one thing: leave,” Netanyahu told the crowd. 

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister — in office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 until June — Netanyahu had pledged to play the role of spoiler against Bennett’s government, which brought an end to his hold on power.

At a special session of the Knesset, he said: “There is a weak and limp government in Israel today. Its days are numbered.”  

The Knesset is in recess and will reconvene on May 8 for legislative work. 

“I won’t name any names, but there will be more defectors,” Miki Zohar of Netanyahu’s Likud party told Kan public radio.

“We’re in talks with more than two lawmakers who are considering coming to us,” Zohar added.

To form a coalition of his own without new elections, Netanyahu would need the support of at least 61 lawmakers.

Currently he falls well short, and does not command the support of all 60 opposition MPs.

The six lawmakers of the Arab-led Joint List are fierce opponents of the former premier.

Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism party, once a political partner of Bennett, predicted the ruling coalition would not survive Silman’s defection.

“This is the beginning of the end of the left-wing, non-Zionist government of Bennett and the Islamist Movement,” he wrote on Twitter.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Leave ‘now’, residents in east Ukraine told –

Ukraine tells residents in the country’s east to evacuate “now” or “risk death” ahead of a feared Russian onslaught on the Donbas region, which Moscow has declared its top prize.

Deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk writes on Telegram that the governors of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, part of the Donbas, and the nearby city of Kharkiv “are doing everything to ensure that the evacuations take place in an organised manner.”

– Bucha killings ‘war crimes’: Biden – 

US President Joe Biden has denounced the killing of Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha allegedly by Russian troops as “war crimes.”

“Civilians executed in cold blood, bodies dumped into mass graves, the sense of brutality and inhumanity left for all the world to see, unapologetically. There’s nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said, urging the world to hold the killers accountable.

– Putin speaks on Bucha –

Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses Ukrainian authorities of being behind “crude and cynical provocations”, after they said hundreds of civilians were found dead in the town of Bucha when Russian troops withdrew.

– Denials ‘not tenable’ –

The Berlin government says that satellite images from last month provided strong rebuttal of Russian denials of involvement in civilian deaths in Bucha.

“Russian declarations” that images of civilian deaths “were posed scenes or that they were not responsible for the murders are in our view not tenable”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says.

– Putin daughters sanctioned –

The United States announces sanctions on two daughters of Putin, saying family members are known to hide the Russian president’s wealth.

It also declared “full blocking” sanctions on Russia’s largest public and private financial institutions, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, and says all new US investments in Russia are now prohibited.

The EU is also looking to add Putin’s daughters to its sanctions blacklist, European diplomats tell AFP.

– More UK sanctions –

Britain has slapped new sanctions on Russia, targeting two banks and eliminating all Russian oil and coal imports by the end of the year.

The latest UK measures also outlaw all new British investment into Russia.

– Four said killed in Donetsk –

Russian strikes have killed four people and wounded four others near a humanitarian distribution point in the east Ukraine region of Donetsk, the regional governor said.

– ‘Long’ war ahead –

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says there is no sign Putin has dropped “his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine”.

– Orban invites Putin, Zelensky –

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Putin’s rare allies in Europe, says he has urged the Russian leader to declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

He also invites the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine to meet Putin in Budapest.

– UN rights body suspension –

The UN General Assembly will vote Thursday on suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for invading Ukraine, the assembly presidency says.

A day earlier Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had also called for Russia to be expelled from the UN Security Council “so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war.”

– Dollar debt paid in rubles –

Russia says it had made payments on dollar-denominated foreign debt in rubles, adding to fears the country is headed for a sovereign default.

The finance ministry says it was forced to make the $649.2-million payment in rubles after an intermediary bank refused to execute the payment but did not say whether the payment was accepted.

– ‘Not far short of genocide’: Johnson –

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the alleged massacre in Bucha “doesn’t look far short of genocide to me” and that Britain will also step up sanctions on Russia.

US President Joe Biden has branded Putin a war criminal.

– Pope slams ‘horrendous cruelties’ –

Pope Francis says during his weekly audience the “recent news about the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, instead attests to new atrocities, such as the Bucha massacre.”

– Red Cross convoy –

A Red Cross convoy arrives in the southern Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia after failing to reach the besieged port city of Mariupol, an AFP journalist reports.

Seven buses with around 300 people onboard accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross and at least 40 private cars arrive in the southern town.

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