Ukraine: WAR BULLETIN April 14, 11.00 am EST – The fiftieth day of the resistance of the Ukrainian people to a Russian military invasion continues.
Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
April 14, 11.00 am EST
WAR ROOM
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 14.04 were approximately:
personnel – about 19900,
tanks ‒ 753,
APV ‒ 1968,
artillery systems – 366,
MLRS – 122,
Anti-aircraft warfare systems – 64,
aircraft – 160,
helicopters – 144,
vehicles – 1437,
boats / cutters – 7, fuel tanks – 76,
UAV operational-tactical level – 134.
special equipment – 25.
mobile SRBM system – 4.
Data are being updated.
The fiftieth day of the resistance of the Ukrainian people to a Russian military invasion continues. Russia continues to build an aviation group near the eastern border of our state, strengthens artillery units, optimizes existing command systems, intelligence and medical support.
There is a constant threat of enemy use of missile weapons throughout Ukraine. The Russian occupiers continue to launch systematic missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Russian forces did not take active action in the Volyn and Polissya areas. Certain units of the Belarus Armed Forces continue to carry out tasks to cover the Ukrainian-Belarusian border in Brest and Gomel regions. Planned combat training activities are underway.
In the Belarus town of Kholmych, at the checkpoints, the military police of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus are checking personal phones. Civilians are informed that Ukrainian units may attack Belarus at any time.
In the Siversky direction, the enemy is regrouping units of the Central Military District from the territory of the Bryansk and Kursk regions. After restoring combat capability, it concentrated these units in the Belgorod and Voronezh regions. Russia strengthens border control, conducts engineering equipment for positions, bases and ensures the presence of a small number of personnel, weapons and military equipment.
In the Slobozhansky direction, Russia conducts reconnaissance of probable areas of attack, increases the system of reconnaissance, management and medical support. It continues to partially block the city of Kharkiv and shells the city with artillery, regroups units and replenishes supplies.
In the Donetsk and Tavriya directions, Russian troops fought in the Slavyansk, Popasna, and Kurakhovo districts and attacked the city of Mariupol. They were not successful and the fighting continues.
Strengthening of grouping of the Russian enemy around Severodonetsk is carried out by the expense of separate divisions of the 2nd All Arms Army of the Central military district.
Coercive mobilization measures continue in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the defenders of Ukraine repulsed eight enemy attacks, destroyed a tank, four armored units and six vehicles, as well as one enemy artillery system.
Units of anti-aircraft missile forces shot down two enemy fighters during the previous day.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
Along with the lives of civilians and the military, residential buildings and infrastructure, the aggressor state’s troops are destroying the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people.
Dozens of destroyed churches, theaters, memorials due to shelling by the Russian army.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, 189 cases of destruction of such objects have been recorded.
Destroyed or damaged:
74 cultural heritage sites.
82 religious buildings.
21 memorials.
15 buildings, museum complexes and reserves.
17 houses of culture, theaters, libraries.
The destruction and damage of Ukraine’s tangible cultural heritage sites is a gross violation by Russia, as a member of UNESCO, of the protocols to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Military Conflict.
As of 10 a.m. on April 14, 2022, according to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations and other sources that need confirmation, 197 (+6 per day) children have died and 351 children (+2 per day) have been injured since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
It is impossible to establish the actual number of dead and wounded children due to the fact that the occupying forces are actively fighting in Ukrainian cities.
The number of children killed as a result of the shelling of the Kramatorsk railway station has increased. As of today, two more children have died at the hospital. A total of 7 children were killed in the shelling of the railway station.
The bodies of children aged 4 and 10 with injuries were found in Gostomel and Bucha in the Kyiv region.
It also became known that in February, at a checkpoint in the Chornobyl zone near the village of Dytyatky in the Kyiv region, Russian servicemen shot dead a civilian car that had stopped on the roadside. A father and his minor son died.
As a result of the shelling of the village of Novoselivka in the Polohiv district of the Zaporizhzhia region by the Russian military, a 10-year-old boy was seriously injured.
As a result of daily bombings and shelling, 1,014 educational institutions were damaged, 91 of which were completely destroyed.
Such actions by the Russian occupation forces are a direct violation of the fundamental rights of children – the right to life and health, guaranteed to every child in the world by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The occupying country deprives Ukrainian citizens of their livelihood.
On April 13, in temporarily occupied Melitopol, the Russian military stole money from the post office of the Ukrposhta for elderly citizens and vulnerable people in need of state support to pay pensions, benefits and subsidies.
The aggressor’s troops, encroaching on the pension and social funds due to citizens, violate their right to peaceful possession of their property and leave the citizens of Ukraine without means of subsistence, provoking a humanitarian crisis in the occupied territories.
Possession of any property without the consent of its owner for personal use is looting, which according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is a war crime. Any person who commits such an act is responsible and should be punished.
I call on the UN Crisis Coordinator in Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance to the inhabitants of the occupied territories, including the city of Melitopol, which is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.
POLICY
Prime Minister of Ukraine
On April 14, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met in Kyiv with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan. The meeting was also attended by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova, Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyy, Minister of Justice Denys Malyuska and Deputy Head of the Office of the President Oleh Tatarov.
Denys Shmyhal thanked Karim Khan for his visit and stressed the importance of the ICC’s involvement in mobilizing all resources and launching an investigation into Russia’s brutal violations of international humanitarian law. The Head of the Ukrainian government reminded that Russia has been committing systematic and mass war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine since 2014.
“The Ukrainian people demand justice, the whole civilized world demands justice. And this requirement is burning,” Denys Shmyhal stressed.
The Prime Minister spoke about the atrocious crimes of the Russian military in Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin, Hostomel and other settlements. The Prime Minister reminded of the rocket attack on the Kramatorsk railway station and the crimes in Mariupol that Russia is trying to hide.
“It is time to conduct a swift and effective investigation, which will result in real charges. It is necessary to ensure the millions of victims of Russia’s armed aggression the right to a fair trial and bring to justice those who organize and directly commit horrific crimes against Ukrainians and all Ukrainians,” said Denys Shmyhal, adding that 42 countries have already called on the ICC to conduct investigation.
The meeting participants stressed that investigative teams consisting of the National Police and prosecutors are carefully documenting crimes against civilians by the Russian military. This work is taking place, including in areas where hostilities are still going on.
According to the Prime Minister, Ukraine will continue to provide all necessary support in gathering evidence of Russia’s international crimes.
The ICC Chief Prosecutor responded by saying that the law should be mobilized on the side of humanity in order to put a halt to the suffering of the civilian population. According to Karim Khan, the ICC team will gather evidence so that all those who committed crimes will be held accountable.
Ministry of Health of Ukraine
During the time of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, 324 hospitals were damaged, of which 24 were completely destroyed. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Health Oleksii Yaremenko on air of Kyiv TV channel.
According to him, the list of destroyed medical institutions is replenished almost daily by new ruined hospitals. After all, Russians are destroying everything in their path.
Instead, in the territories already liberated from the occupiers, work is underway to restore healthcare facilities.
“As soon as the territory is de-occupied, we send the necessary resources there. In particular, the Ministry has already started planning the rehabilitation and reconstruction of hospitals. The Ministry of Health is currently working on a comprehensive plan of where hospitals will be built, in what shape they will be restored and what services they will provide. While the reconstruction of medical facilities continues, mobile hospitals may be temporarily located in some settlements. Also in hospitals where the scale of destructions is low, minor repairs will be carried out as an intermediate stage,” Oleksii Yaremenko said.
The Ministry of Health is working systematically with international partners to rebuild every hospital needed to provide healthcare services to the population as soon as possible.
Humanitarian aid is also being actively supplied to healthcare facilities in the liberated territories. In particular, medicines, consumables and equipment.
It should be noted that since the beginning of the full-blown war, Ukraine has received more than 3,234 tons of medical humanitarian aid totaling more than UAH 3,214,000,000.
https://www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/moz-rosijski-snaryadi-vluchili-u-ponad-300-ukrayinskih-likaren
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Statement by the MFA of Ukraine on the threat of illegal adoption of Ukrainian children by citizens of the Russian Federation
In the course of the ongoing full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the Russian occupiers continue to violate the norms of international law and resort to unacceptable actions – the illegal and forced displacement of Ukrainian citizens, including children, among them orphans, children deprived of parental care, as well as children whose parents died as a result of Russia’s military aggression, across the state borders of our State to the territory of Russia.
A blatant threat of illegal adoption of Ukrainian children by Russian citizens without observing all the necessary procedures determined by the legislation of Ukraine. In this context, information about the intention of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation to sign “agreements” with the Russian occupation administrations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that would allow the transfer of orphans illegally deported from the territory of Ukraine to Russian families calls the particular concern in this context.
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the states that are parties to this international treaty, including Russia and Ukraine are obliged to take measures to combat the illegal movement and non-return of children from abroad.
The Kremlin’s attempts to provide “legitimate” grounds for its criminal actions on the territory of Ukraine are a cynical disregard for the fundamental laws and customs of warfare and universally recognized human rights.
In fact, in violation of international humanitarian law and basic standards of humanness, Russia is engaged in state-organized kidnapping of children and destruction of the future of the Ukrainian nation.
Such actions of the Russian occupiers can be qualified as kidnapping and require a decisive reaction from the international community, primarily from the relevant international organizations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine appeals to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to accept urgent measures for the return of Ukrainian children to the territory of our State.
https://bit.ly/3JLeU74
Comment by the MFA of Ukraine on the Report of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism Mission of Experts in the context of the war of the Russian federation against Ukraine
The MFA of Ukraine welcomes the publication of the comprehensive Report on violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation and its armed forces during the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.
For the first time, this OSCE mechanism was invoked by an unprecedented number of initiating countries – 46 together with Ukraine, which testifies to the recognition by the international community of the extreme seriousness and scale of Russia’s gross violations.
The findings of the Report clearly testify to the fact that Russia’s violations are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades and that urgent action is needed to stop the aggressor-state. The recognition in the Report that certain parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have also been occupied by Russia since 2014 is of crucial importance.
We view the OSCE Moscow Mechanism Report as an important contribution to the international community’s efforts to prevent impunity and ensure justice by holding accountable all masterminds and perpetrators of the crimes of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. We take note of the fact that the Russian Federation refused to cooperate with the Mission of Experts which is nothing but a clear indication of the recognition of Russia’s full responsibility for the war of aggression it launched against Ukraine and its consequences.
The MFA of Ukraine draws separate attention to the Mission’s conclusion about the need for a serious international enquiry, on the spot, to investigate summary executions of a large number of civilians during the Russian occupation of villages in the proximity of Kyiv, in particular Bucha, pointing to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia’s armed formations.
Almost 100-pages Report provides strong evidence of the enormous amount of atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine. As a conclusion, it is stressed that “the Mission found clear patterns of IHL violations by the Russian forces on many of the issues investigated. It is not conceivable that so many civilians would have been killed and injured and so many civilian objects, including houses, hospitals, cultural property, schools, multi-story residential buildings, administrative buildings, penitentiary institutions, police stations, water stations and electricity systems would have been damaged or destroyed if Russia had respected its IHL obligations in terms of distinction, proportionality and precautions in conducting hostilities in Ukraine. The conduct of the siege of Mariupol is an extreme example”.