First and second, the beginnings of Associated Press and Reuters reports, both made available at about 8 a.m. EDT. Third, a TeleSUR report from last Thursday. Next, via Popular Resistance, a look at the war in Ukraine and its global economic context by Australian commentator Cameron Leckie. — MCM
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Ukraine documents alleged atrocities by retreating Russians, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi | The Associated Press BUCHA, Ukraine — Ukrainian troops are finding brutalized bodies and widespread destruction in suburbs of the capital as Russian soldiers withdraw and Moscow focuses its attacks elsewhere, including missile strikes today that targeted fuel and ammunition supplies in southern and eastern Ukraine. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a small city northwest of Kyiv, saw the bodies of at least nine people in civilian clothes who appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs. . . . Authorities said they were documenting evidence as Ukraine’s military reclaims territory and discovers indications of execution-style slayings to add to their case for for prosecuting Russian officials for war crimes. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said scores of killed civilians were found on the streets of Bucha and the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel in what looked like a “scene from a horror movie.” READ MORE . . .
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Ukrainians and Europeans accuse Russians of committing atrocities, by Issam Abdallah and Pavel Polityu |Reuters * Zelenskiy spokesman says Russian actions look like war crimes * EU, UK officials express outrage * Dead civilians scattered on streets of recaptured town near Kyiv * Russia says draft deal not ready for top-level talks * Missiles land near port city of Odesa | LVIV/ODESA, Ukraine — Ukrainian and European officials expressed outrage on today at what they said were atrocities committed by Russian forces near Kyiv before they withdrew from the region to focus their attacks elsewhere. The mayor of Bucha, a town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said on Saturday that 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army. Victims were seen by Reuters in a mass grave . . . READ MORE . . .
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Russia Creates Working Groups to Probe US-Controlled Biolabs. From TeleSUR. A Russian parliamentary commission held its first meeting on Thursday, announcing the establishment of four working groups to investigate U.S.-controlled biolabs in Ukraine. The commission heard information from the Russian Defense Ministry on the investigation into biological research by American specialists in Ukraine. During Russia’s special military operation, the dangerous biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine were revealed, said Irina Yarovaya, deputy chairperson of the State Duma. “Dangerous both for Russia and for Ukraine itself. We are talking about secret activities controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, with signs of the development of biological weapons,” she said. “The commission has instructed the working groups on defense, security and international law to start working on materials on the involvement of Hunter Biden in the project in Ukraine, as well as an invitation for explanations from him and Victoria Nuland.” The investment fund Rosemont Seneca, currently managed by U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, financed the Pentagon’s military biological program in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said last week. READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine: A Decisive Transfer of the Balance of Power from West to East, by Cameron Leckie | Pearls and Irritations. Very few mainstream Western reporters, if any, appear to be located where the bulk of the fighting is, namely in the Donbass and around Mariupol. . . . We should thus take a healthy dose of skepticism about the media reporting and analysis of the war – from all sides. . . . The Russian military . . . has effectively fixed in place the garrisons defending Ukraine’s major cities leaving them incapable of supporting the troops in the Donbass. Meanwhile Russia is progressively destroying the military infrastructure of the Ukraine . . . . With Russian forces on the verge of completing the capture of Mariupol, it will only be a matter of time before the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass are fully encircled and subsequently destroyed or forced to surrender. . . . The writing is on the wall that Russia, barring outside intervention . . . will achieve its military objectives. The direct Russo-Ukraine conflict is however just one level of this conflict. Ukraine is actually an unfortunate pawn in the much bigger conflict. As long time Russia analyst Gilbert Doctorow notes this is a ‘full-blown proxy war between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, and it is about ending or perpetuating American global hegemony.’ Whilst the war in Ukraine will end sooner or later, the implications at a global scale of this proxy war will be of much greater consequence for a much greater period of time. READ MORE . . .
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TO BE CONTINUED