On some of Moscow’s most recognisable streets, a hooded man lies face down, arms bound behind his back with white cord.

A week ago the images captured in these photographs would have had little meaning.

But after pictures emerged showing the corpses of Ukrainian civilians killed in cold blood on the streets of Bucha, the message of protest is clear. The residents of Bucha had also been bound with white ties, before being shot in the head.

Small acts of defiance such as this — thought to have been the work of a Moscow artist — are becoming increasingly common in Russia, with mass street protests now all but snuffed out by heavy policing.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/92b4a0e2-b50f-11ec-8c29-375fe0cc1f19?shareToken=d105f53b0a350875020623ee66097f7c

NEW DELHI, April 5 (Reuters) - India on Tuesday condemned the killings of civilians in Ukraine's Bucha and called for an independent investigation, having earlier declined to explicitly criticise the invasion of Ukraine by its long-time partner Russia.

…”Recent reports of civilian killings in Bucha are deeply disturbing," T.S. Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, told a meeting of the Security Council.

"We unequivocally condemn these killings and support the call for an independent investigation."

Tirumurti delivered his speech shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a phone conversation with India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The United States has repeatedly urged India to condemn Russia's aggression since the Feb. 24 invasion.

https://www.reuters.com/world/india-condemns-killings-ukraines-bucha-apparent-hardening-stance-2022-04-05/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday on state television that amid the Russian invasion, Ukraine will become "big Israel", with security being the top priority for the country over the next 10 years.

In an interview with Ukrainian journalists broadcast on national television, Zelensky also said that "Ukraine had no option but to negotiate with Russia to end fighting," but him and Russian President Vladimir Putin might not talk in person.

…"All of us, including myself, will perceive even the possibility of negotiations as a challenge," Zelensky said. "The challenge is internal, first of all, one's own, human challenge. Then, when you pull yourself together, and you have to do it, I think that we have no other choice."

He said the events in Bucha were unforgivable and signaled that Moscow should recognize what its troops were alleged to have done. The Russian news agency Interfax cited a deputy Russian foreign minister as saying talks between the two sides were continuing via video link.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjuodsyx9?utm_source=ynetnews.com&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=Twitter&utm_term=sjuodsyx9&utm_content=Article%20Top

Vladimir Putin has congratulated Hungary’s strongman leader, Viktor Orbán, on his decisive election victory, amid signs that European Union authorities will launch a sanctions process against Budapest that is intended to safeguard EU funds at risk from democratic-backsliding member states.

Two members of the European parliament said they expected the European Commission to launch the “rule of law conditionality mechanism” against Hungary, a legal process that could ultimately switch off billions in EU payments to Budapest. EU countries that have government-controlled courts and captured state institutions can be deprived of EU funds, but the law has never been tested.

At the European parliament in Brussels on Monday, MEPs expressed shock at Orbán’s victory speech, where he hit out at “opponents”, including a characteristic dig at “Brussels bureaucrats”, but also Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The swaggering speech came just hours after the western world reacted in horror to the atrocities at Bucha and other towns near Kyiv…EU leaders were conspicuously silent on a day when independent election observers at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported that the Hungarian vote was “marred by the absence of a level playing field”.

…Petri Sarvamaa, a centre-right Finnish MEP, said, based on his understanding, the commission was going to trigger the process within days, but added that Hungary posed far deeper questions. Europe could be approaching a historic moment, he said. “We are facing existential issues. These are totalitarian authoritarian regimes vis-a-vis the democratic world and Orbán seems to be willing to be part of that [first] camp.”

“We appeased Viktor Orbán … and we, the union, appeased Vladimir Putin. And if we continue on this path.. We will find ourselves obsolete.”


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/04/victory-of-putin-ally-orban-in-hungary-may-trigger-freeze-on-eu-funding

Russia’s poorly executed invasion of Ukraine and the international community’s economic and diplomatic response are cautionary lessons for China and others who may want to attempt aggressive actions in the Pacific, the Pentagon’s policy chief for the region said Monday.

“When we look at the types of acts of aggression that we worry about in the Indo-Pacific—and the Taiwan Strait being the top of that list—it's going to be very difficult, and I think that there are broad lessons there to be drawn from Ukraine,” Ely Ratner, assistant defense secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said at the Sea-Air-Space conference outside Washington, D.C.

“Number one, military operations are probably going to be more difficult than you think for a whole bunch of reasons: because you're not tested in the way you think you are, because your adversary’s probably stronger than you think it is. And because the terrain might be more difficult than you’ve anticipated, et cetera.” The economic sanctions imposed against Russia after the invasion in February went much further than expected by Russian and Chinese leaders, Ratner said.

“I think that's a very important lesson, particularly for an economy in China that's in very bad shape,” he said. “But to be facing, potentially, that kind of economic penalty and costs for acts of aggression is something one would not take wisely when your own economy is facing such incredible headwinds.”

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/04/china-should-heed-lessons-russias-aggression-us-policy-leader-says/364021/

In a significant move, US representatives in Cyprus have asked the government whether they would be willing to transfer the country's Russian-made weapons to Ukraine.

The request was received positively by President Nicos Anastasiades who gave the go-ahead for further discussions to be done quickly. This would mean that Cyprus will no longer remain neutral in the war, as is usually the case.

…Kathimerini's sources stated that the Americans specifically asked for Cypriot anti-aircraft weapons as well as attack helicopters. Of particular interest are two types of anti-aircraft systems, the TOR/M1 (purchased from GR) which deploys the S-300 missile system and BUK M-2, including T-80u and BMP3 as well as the MI-35 helicopter.

Consequently, if weapons from the Cypriot armed forces are to be deployed to Ukraine they will be replaced with corresponding American weaponry.

https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/the-us-asks-cyprus-to-transfer-its-russian-made-weapons-to-ukraine

One of President Vladimir Putin's most important allies is becoming increasingly outspoken in his criticisms of the Kremlin over its execution of the war in Ukraine. Ramzan Kadyrov's willingness to criticize top Kremlin officials directly, and thus indirectly criticize Putin, is notable. It evinces rising tensions in Russia's elite over the absolute failure to subjugate Ukraine.

…Earlier last week, Kadyrov released an odd video in which, while swiveling in a chair in one of his opulent offices, he complained that Russia's lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine was making too many compromises. Then, on Sunday, Kadyrov escalated by publicly lambasting Putin's chief press officer, Dmitry Peskov. Kadyrov appears to dislike Peskov over the latter's occasional reminding of the Chechen leader as to who ultimately rules Russia.

Posting to his very active Telegram feed, Kadyrov complained that Peskov had defended Russian TV host Ivan Urgant even though Urgant had criticized the war in Ukraine and left Russia. Kadyrov contrasted Peskov's treatment of Urgant with the experience of Chechen forces in Ukraine who "sit in a cold trench for several days." The strongman complained that Peskov had not offered congratulations over Putin's awarding of a lieutenant general rank to him (Putin awarded that rank last week in recognition of the Chechen military service in Ukraine — although, perhaps interestingly, Putin did not award Kadyrov the higher rank of colonel general). Kadyrov asked why Peskov did not "comment more delicately" so as to boost Chechen morale. He concluded that Peskov's "priority scale" is unacceptable and "we need to do something about it," followed by a suggestive pause.

It's highly unlikely that Kadyrov would act against Peskov. Doing so would risk a personal affront to Putin that the Russian leader simply could not tolerate. Still, political tensions are clearly growing both inside the Kremlin and at the Russian frontier…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-ramzan-kadyrov-s-criticism-a-window-into-putin-s-growing-ukraine-crisis/ar-AAVPRfU?ocid=ob-tw-enus-677