Good lord. In Bucha, one of the towns near Kyiv that Russia recently withdrew from, Ukrainian forces found a mass grave with nearly 300 people in it and dozens of civilians lying dead in the streets.
This will undoubtedly strengthen calls for more western sanctions against Russia.
And it’s a bad sign for peace talks – Zelensky is going to have to sell a deal to Ukrainian society, and these horrific scenes will harden people against any perceived concessions
It also seems talk of mobile crematoriums may have been premature – Russia just left hundreds of its own dead soldiers lying around near Kyiv alone, instead of taking them back to be buried
Russia’s deputy defense minister says Moscow has decided to “fundamentally cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernigiv” in order to “increase mutual trust for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine.”
We're long past the point of crossing any rubicons, but it's still notable that Russia at least came up with some sort of spurious reasons to ban news before – now we've moved on to straight-up censorship because fuck you that's why
Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium, which hosted the World Cup final in 2018, is packed out for a pro-war rally on the anniversary of Russia’s Crimea annexation.
Lots of reports of state employees being bussed in. They’re watching a video with Ukrainian flags being thrown to the ground
“They packed us into a bus and drove us here,” one woman tells @SotaVision
Polina Gagarina, once a Russian Eurovision contestant, absolutely butchering “Cuckoo” by the brilliant Soviet 80s rock band Kino. Nobody must have told her they were known for their *anti-war* songs
– Russia ceases fire and withdraws
– Ukrainian "neutrality" without Nato
– Kyiv keeps its army but can't host foreign bases
– Russian gets legal status in Ukraine
@ArashMassoudi This is definitely progress. But it's a very difficult process.
It's very hard to see how they could ever agree on Crimea and Donbas – Ukraine can't give up the territory.
And Kyiv worries Russia could just be playing for time to replenish its army and start a new offensive.
More details on Ukraine’s peace talks with Russia, including Israel’s involvement.
“He needs to be able to sell it. Putin can say we wanted to stop Ukraine joining Nato and putting foreign bases in its territory. If they do that he can say, ‘I got it.’” on.ft.com/3u0WJ7N
Zelensky says Ukraine's talks with Russia are starting to “sound more realistic.”
“However, time is still needed for the decisions to be in Ukraine’s interests. Our heroes, our defenders give us this time defending Ukraine everywhere.”
A woman burst onto Russia’s main live evening newscast today with a sign that says:
“Stop the war
Don’t believe propaganda
They’re lying to you”
And chanting: “Stop the war! No to war!”
(Does anyone know who this woman is?)
The anti-war protester who crashed the news broadcast is Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One, says @pchikov, whose legal defense foundation is going to defend her against charges of “discrediting the Russian armed forces.” She’s already at the police station.