TOP HEADLINES

• Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has called for Ukraine talks 'without preconditions,' urging 'truce' to end the conflict. Lukashenko said that Western support for Kyiv was increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war breaking out in Ukraine. He also said Russian tactical nuclear weapons set to be deployed in Belarus would protect it from Western threats, alleging that there were plans to invade it from neighboring Poland.

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would "never forgive" Moscow for its occupation of Bucha, a year after the town became a symbol of alleged Russian war crimes. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine controls only a third of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, which has seen the longest battle of the Russian offensive, said Sergiy Leshchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's presidency. He denied however that the city was surrounded by Russian forces despite recent claims from a Russian aide in the Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located, that it was "practically surrounded." 

• Lawmakers from the pro-Russia, far-right Freedom Party walked out of the lower house of Austria's parliament during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, protesting that it violated Austria's neutrality. Zelenskyy addressed the chamber via video link, thanking Austria for its humanitarian aid and help with projects such as clearing land mines.

• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been detained on suspicion of spying for Washington, Russia said, drawing immediate outrage from the West with the White House condemning the allegation as "ridiculous." Gershkovich's arrest is expected to escalate the Kremlin's confrontation with the West amid Moscow's assault on Ukraine. The U.S. said it was seeking consular access.

• Ukrainian athletes' human rights have been ignored by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and a UN expert in weighing Russia and Belarus's readmission into global sports events, a leading authority on human rights says. Patricia Wiater said "unfortunately" neither the IOC nor UN special rapporteur in cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki had addressed protecting the rights of Ukraine's athletes.

• Moscow said its foreign minister will chair a UN Security Council meeting in April, when Russia will hold the rotating presidency of the international body. Russia has repeatedly said it has been confronted at the UN by the "collective West" that has ostracized the country since the beginning of the Ukraine offensive. Ukraine has called for Russia to be removed from the Security Council over its military operation.

• A group of 65 Ukrainian military personnel has completed training in the United States on the Patriot air defense system and returned to Europe, the Pentagon said. Ukraine repeatedly pushed the U.S. for the high-tech system to help shield against Russian strikes and Washington promised late last year that it would provide a Patriot battery, with Kyiv's troops starting training in Oklahoma in January.

IN DETAIL

Ukraine would 'never forgive' Moscow for occupation of Bucha

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would "never forgive" Moscow for its occupation of Bucha, a year after the town became a symbol of alleged Russian war crimes.

Russian forces pulled back from the commuter town northwest of Kyiv on March 31, 2022, just over one month after the start of the Ukraine conflict.

AFP journalists on April 2 last year discovered the bodies of at least 20 people in civilian clothing, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lying in a street of the suburb.

Zelenskyy said Bucha had become "a symbol of the atrocities" committed by Russian forces, who have been linked to the extra-judicial killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha.

"We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator," Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media.

During a visit to Bucha days after the Russian troops' withdrawal, Zelenskyy described the killings as "genocide."

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian troops of war crimes after the discoveries, pointing to an abundance of footage and witness accounts.

Prosecutors in Kyiv say Russian forces killed some 1,400 civilians around Bucha and that they have identified dozens of Russian soldiers responsible.

But Moscow denies the accusations, claiming the atrocities in Bucha were staged.

Many foreign leaders and officials who have visited Ukraine since the war started have made a stop in Bucha.

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