World

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will on Tuesday address the UN Security Council, seeking tougher measures against Moscow over alleged killings of civilians, as his country braces for further Russian bombardments in the east and south.

The speech, Zelensky’s first to the body since Russia’s invasion, comes after he made an emotional trip to Bucha, where dozens of bodies were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops.

US President Joe Biden has called for a “war crimes trial” over the alleged atrocities and Western officials have vowed new economic sanctions this week in response to the harrowing discoveries in Bucha and other towns near Kyiv.

Zelensky has denounced “war crimes” and attempted “genocide” while appealing for new sanctions, and more Western defence aid, saying they could have helped save innocent lives.

It was not clear if his speech to the UN Security Council, to be delivered on the 41st day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would be pre-recorded or live.

Europe’s worst conflict in decades has killed as many as 20,000 people, according to Ukrainian estimates. It has seen more than 4.2 million flee the country and displaced another 6.5 million internally.

“The sanctions response to Russia’s massacre of civilians must finally be powerful,” Zelensky said in a Telegram video late Monday after touring the devastated streets of Bucha.

“Did hundreds of our people have to die in agony for some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the most severe pressure?” he asked.

– ‘In front of my eyes’ –

Moscow has denied responsibility and suggested that the images are fake or that the deaths occurred after Russian forces pulled out of the area.

One resident in Bucha, Olena, told AFP she saw Russian soldiers shoot a man in cold blood as units of “brutal” older troops sowed fear in the town.

“Right in front of my eyes, they fired on a man who was going to get food at the supermarket,” said the 43-year-old, who did not wish to give her family name.

Denmark, Italy and Spain on Tuesday became the the latest European nations to expel dozens of Russian “intelligence officers” registered as diplomats, with more than 150 sent home in 48 hours.

The Kremlin called the mass expulsions a “short-sighted move” that would complicate negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the conflict.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv this week alongside EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell, her spokesman said, after the bloc offered assistance in documenting potential atrocities against unarmed residents.

French prosecutors in Paris said they had opened three more probes into suspected war crimes committed against French citizens in Ukraine.

– NATO warns of Donbas push –

Many in Ukraine are bracing for further Russian bombardments especially in the east and south, and air raid sirens rang out overnight across much of the country.

“In the coming weeks, we expect a further Russian push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and to create a land bridge to occupied Crimea,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

Biden told reporters Monday that there should be “a war crimes trial” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, vowing that Washington would join the EU in announcing new sanctions this week.

The US Treasury announced Tuesday that Russia will no longer be able to pay its foreign debt with dollars held in American banks, further squeezing its financial system.

European sanctions will “include oil and coal,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after talks with his German counterpart in Berlin.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has warned that the “next phase” of Russia’s invasion, focusing on expanding territories it holds in the east and south, “could be measured in months or longer.”

The full nature of the killings in Bucha and other areas from which Russian troops have withdrawn is still being pieced together.

Ukrainian officials say over 400 civilian bodies have been recovered from the wider Kyiv region, many of whom have been buried in mass graves.

– ‘I buried six people’ –

But Zelensky has warned that the deaths in Bucha could be only the tip of the iceberg, saying he had information that even more people had been killed in places like nearby Borodianka.

AFP reporters who briefly visited the area saw no bodies in the streets, but locals reported many deaths. The scale of devastation in the town saw buildings flayed open.

“I know five civilians were killed,” said 58-year-old Rafik Azimov. “But we don’t know how many more are left in the basements of the ruined buildings after the bombardments.”

“I buried six people,” another resident, Volodymyr Nahornyi, said. “More people are under the ruins.”

Ukraine has warned that Moscow is preparing a “full-scale” attack in the country’s east and regional officials urged civilians to evacuate Lugansk fearing a major Russian attack.

Even where troops have withdrawn, fears remain, with Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko telling residents to not yet return, citing the danger of continued shelling and the danger of unexploded munitions.

On Monday, officials in Mykolaiv, on the Black Sea not far from Odessa, said cluster bombs were used against the city in strikes that killed 10 civilians and wounded 46.

A 2008 UN convention bans the production and use of cluster bombs, which kill indiscriminately, but it has not been signed by Russia or Ukraine.

Elsewhere in the south, concerns remain for civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for over a month, and where authorities say at least 5,000 people have been killed. 

The Red Cross said Tuesday that Russian forces had released a team sent to help evacuate Mariupol residents that was detained en route Monday.

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Pakistan’s supreme court adjourned Tuesday without ruling on the legality of political manoeuvres that led Prime Minister Imran Khan to dissolve the national assembly and call fresh elections.

The court, which will resume Wednesday, must decide if the deputy speaker of the assembly violated the constitution by refusing to allow a no-confidence vote against Khan at the weekend.

Had the vote taken place Khan was certain to have been booted from office, but the move allowed him to get the presidency — a largely ceremonial role held by a loyalist — to dissolve parliament and order an election, which must be held within 90 days.

President Arif Alvi upped the ante Tuesday by issuing a letter to the opposition saying if they did not nominate a candidate for interim prime minister, the process would continue without them.

Shehbaz Sharif, who would have replaced Khan had Sunday’s vote taken place, said he would not participate.

“The main issue is that the constitution has been abrogated,” he told reporters outside the court.

“If we don’t get a remedy then Pakistan will, God forbid, become a banana republic.”

Khan has already nominated former chief justice Gulzar Ahmad for the role.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been wracked by political crises for much of its 75-year existence, and no prime minister has ever seen out a full term.

There had been high hopes for Khan when he was elected in 2018 on a promise of sweeping away decades of entrenched corruption and cronyism, but he has struggled to maintain support with soaring inflation, a feeble rupee and crippling debt.

– ‘Foreign interference’ –

The opposition had expected to take power on Sunday after mustering enough support to oust him, but the deputy speaker refused to allow the vote to proceed because of alleged “foreign interference”.

Khan said the opposition had gone too far by colluding with the United States for “regime change”.

The cricket star turned politician says Western powers want him removed because he will not stand with them against Russia and China, and the issue is sure to ignite any forthcoming election.

Washington has denied any interference.

On Tuesday Khan ramped up the anti-US rhetoric, calling for protests to “send a message to America, and those traitors who are a part of it here, so they should know that we are a free country and will never let this conspiracy succeed”.

It is unclear when the court will rule on the issue — or if Khan would even accept its decision — but there is precedent.

In 1988, Muhammad Khan Junejo appealed to the court after the assembly was dissolved by then president General Zia-ul-Haq, who had taken power in a military coup years earlier.

It agreed his government had been dissolved unconstitutionally, but ruled that since elections had been announced anyway it was best to move on.

In 1993, the court ruled president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had also illegally dissolved the assembly — then with Nawaz Sharif as prime minister.

Although the government resumed business, it lasted less than two months before being dissolved again.

The supreme court is ostensibly independent, but rights activists say previous benches have been used by civilian and military administrations to do their bidding throughout Pakistan’s history.

Publicly the military appears to be keeping out of the current fray, but there have been four coups since independence in 1947 and the country has spent more than three decades under army rule.

On Tuesday the court said it would not “indulge in the matter of state policy or foreign policy” in making a decision.

“Our concern is the legality of the ruling of the speaker,” said Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Tuesday that a major hunger crisis in Africa is “going largely unnoticed” as the world focuses on Ukraine and other crises.

Some 346 million people — more than one in four people across Africa — are suffering from “alarming” hunger and that number will probably rise in the coming months, the ICRC said.

The crisis spans the continent from drought-ravaged Somalia and Ethiopia in the east to Mauritania and Burkina Faso in the west, it said.

But, it warned, funding to assist millions going without meals is in short supply.

“This is a disaster going largely unnoticed. Millions of families are going hungry and children are dying because of malnutrition,” ICRC head of global operations Dominik Stillhart told reporters in Nairobi.

He said global attention on the “terrible” plight of civilians in Ukraine “should not prevent the world from looking at other crises.”

The conflict in Ukraine has also contributed to rising food and fuel costs and supply chain disruptions, amplifying the economic effect of the coronavirus pandemic, the ICRC added.

The ICRC has budgeted $1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) this year for its humanitarian response across Africa but faces a $800-million-euro shortfall.

“We are scaling up our operations… to help as many people as we can, but the number of people going without food and water is staggering,” said Stillhart.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) warned last month that over 70 percent of South Sudan’s population would face extreme hunger this year because of natural disasters and armed instability.

More than six million people in eastern and southern Ethiopia would need “life-saving” interventions this year as the region suffers its worst drought in decades, the UN said in January.

In Burkina Faso, the number of people displaced by hunger had more than doubled in the past year.

Stillhart also warned about the underlying impact on harvests from climate change.

“The current food security crisis is clearly the result of combined effects of conflict… but it is also the effect of repeated climate shocks,” he said.

Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose “Drive My Car” won this year’s best international film Oscar, said Tuesday he is ready to “take on the challenge” of a Hollywood blockbuster.

The 43-year-old said he was still in shock over the film’s Oscar win.

“Until the very last minute, I was convinced that the Oscars and my life were two things that had absolutely nothing in common,” he told reporters in Tokyo at a press conference with the film’s lead Hidetoshi Nishijima.

The 51-year-old actor said he thought the film’s success was due in part to its universality and “the fact that the main character has lost someone dear and is trying to continue living nonetheless”.

Inspired by a work by famed author Haruki Murakami, the three-hour film scooped multiple honours en route to its Oscars triumph, including Golden Globes and a Bafta.

Hamaguchi said he had received some counsel from fellow director Chloe Zhao, whose “Nomadland” was the toast of the Oscars last year and who went on to direct Marvel superhero movie “The Eternals”.

“She told me ‘Stay sane,’ and I found these words very important,” said Hamaguchi, adding that he felt ready to “take on the challenge” of a Hollywood blockbuster, if offered the opportunity.

Taking on such a project would depend on the subject of the film and whether conditions would allow him to “keep my feet firmly on the ground”, he added.

Hamaguchi is the fifth Japanese director to have a film receive the foreign-language Oscar, along with the likes of cinema icon Akira Kurosawa, whose “Rashomon” won in 1952.

“Drive My Car” was also nominated for best director and best adapted screenplay, as well as best picture — a first in the history of Japanese cinema.

Sri Lanka’s president lost his parliamentary majority Tuesday as former allies urged his resignation, following days of street protests over the island nation’s crippling economic crisis.

Severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials — along with record inflation and crippling power cuts — have inflicted widespread misery in the country’s most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s once-powerful ruling coalition is in turmoil after a string of defections, capped Tuesday by the new finance minister’s resignation just one day after taking office.

Public anger is at a fever pitch, with crowds attempting to storm the homes of several government figures since the weekend and large demonstrations elsewhere.

“If we don’t act now, there will be a river of blood in the country,” said Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, a newly independent lawmaker who broke ranks with the president’s party and joined calls for the leader to step down.

“We have to forget party politics and ensure an interim government.”

Tuesday’s parliamentary session was the first since dozens of MPs withdrew their support for Rajapaksa’s government, including 16 lawmakers from the president’s own Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP).

The government is now five short of a majority in the 225-member house, but there has been no clear signal that legislators will attempt a no-confidence motion that would compel it to resign.

Opposition parties have already rebuffed Rajapaksa’s call to join a unity administration helmed by him and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Their government imposed a state of emergency last week in an effort to quell rising street protests, but the ordinance is set to expire next week unless ratified by parliament. 

Rejecting calls for a vote on the emergency decree, the government cut short Tuesday’s parliamentary session more than two hours before its scheduled finish. 

Nimal Lanza, a former minister who has also abandoned Rajapaksa’s administration, conceded that the ruling party no longer had a mandate to govern and threw his support behind the crowds calling for the president’s resignation.

“I beg and appeal to you to take the side of the protesters,” he told parliament, addressing the prime minister, who attended the session but remained silent. 

Every member of Sri Lanka’s cabinet except the president and prime minister resigned late Sunday.

Former justice minister Ali Sabry was appointed to helm the finance ministry on Monday, replacing the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa, but abruptly resigned after just one day in office.

“Whilst I regret the inconvenience caused, I believe I have always acted in the best interests of the country,” Sabry said in a statement.

The ministry’s top civil servant also resigned Tuesday, a day after the central bank governor quit. 

– ‘Cry of the people’ –

Boisterous demonstrations have spread across the country of 22 million despite the emergency laws allowing troops to detain participants and a weekend curfew that lapsed on Monday morning. 

Crowds have attempted to storm the homes of more than a dozen government figures, including the president’s house in Colombo.

Protesters there torched the vehicles of security forces, who responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas.

Most demonstrations have been peaceful, with Catholic clergy and nuns led by Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith leading a procession in the capital.

“This is a valuable country with intelligent people. But our intelligence, the people’s intelligence, has been insulted by corruption,” Ranjith said. 

“Therefore now we call out… please now listen to the cry of the people and step down.”

A critical lack of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning $51 billion foreign debt, with the pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from tourism and remittances.

The result has seen unprecedented shortages with no sign of an end to the economic woes.

Economists say Sri Lanka’s crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts.