Russia has been accused of committing war crimes after the dead bodies of hundreds of unarmed civilians were discovered in areas recently occupied by Russian forces near the Ukraine capital Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, vowed to create a “mechanism of justice” to investigate alleged atrocities by the retreating Russian soldiers in the city of Bucha, 25km north-west of Kyiv.
“The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth,” Zelensky said in a video address on Sunday.
Iryna Venedyktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, said 410 bodies of civilians had been recovered from the Kyiv region.
Human Rights Watch, the New York-based group, said it had documented several cases of unlawful violence it described as “apparent war crimes”, including in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
Pictures of charred corpses and reports of mass graves prompted outrage from western leaders yesterday. Images from Bucha were “unbearable”, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter. German chancellor Olaf Scholz described “terrible and grisly” scenes emerging from the town, mentioning “roads littered with corpses”.
“You can’t help but see these images as a punch to the gut,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken, urging the global community against becoming “numb”. Liz Truss, British foreign secretary, said she was “appalled by atrocities in Bucha and other towns”, adding that the UK was collecting evidence of war crimes.
The EU said it was preparing to introduce more sanctions against Moscow after the reports emerged.
Russia’s ministry of defence denied accusations of murdering civilians, describing the claims as a “provocation”, adding that photos and videos of atrocities are “another production of the Kyiv regime for the western media”.
China, which has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, offered a muted response on Monday.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their bombardment of critical infrastructure in the south of the country. The besieged city of Mariupol remained a target and the port of Odesa, further to the west, was targeted for the first time over the weekend. The mayor of Mykolayiv, 130km north-east of Odesa, said Russian troops launched several rocket attacks on his city earlier today.
More on Ukraine:
Nato: Just four months ago, the idea of Finland joining Nato this year would have seemed far fetched. Now, the prospect of Russia’s once-neutral neighbour applying to become a member seems all but inevitable.
Diplomacy: The war has sparked a debate in Europe on the merits of neutrality. Chinese leader Xi Jinping called on the EU “to pursue an independent policy towards China” — a thinly veiled criticism of the bloc’s solidarity with the US.
Sanctions: Small businesses and multinationals alike are devising creative solutions to keep money flowing in and out of Russia as they face decisions about whether to suspend business in the country entirely.
Demographics: Asked what keeps him up at night, Vladimir Putin identified Russia’s population decline and the threat it poses to the economy. The birth rate dropped during the second world war and after the fall of the Soviet Union, leading to labour shortages.
The war in maps: Follow the conflict with the FT’s visual guide to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a series of maps and infographics.
Thanks for reading FirstFT Americas. Here’s the rest of today’s news — Gordon
Five more stories in the news
1. Jamie Dimon warns of ‘volatile markets’ JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, in his annual letter to shareholders, has warned of “very volatile markets” to come as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy. Meanwhile, Mary Daly, president of the Fed’s San Francisco branch, made the case for a half-point interest rate rise in an interview with the Financial Times.
2. US executives reap record pay US chief executives are on track to receive record rewards this year while CEO pay ratios, which compare a chief executive’s total annual pay with that of the median company employee, are also on track to hit a record. Part of the jump in executive pay stemmed from bonuses paused or slashed in 2020 during the pandemic.
3. Carrie Lam says she will not seek a second term Hong Kong’s chief executive said she would not seek a second five-year term in office, signalling the end of her tumultuous tenure as the territory’s most senior leader. Lam’s resignation came shortly after Hong Kong, which has followed China’s strict zero Covid policy, was rocked by a disastrous Omicron outbreak that peaked last month.
4. Costa Rica elects anti-establishment candidate as president Rodrigo Chaves, a former World Bank official accused of sexual harassment, is on course to become the next president of Costa Rica. Elsewhere, Viktor Orban won a fourth consecutive term as Hungary’s prime minister and in Serbia president Aleksandar Vucic was on track to be re-elected.
5. China changes audit secrecy rules in bid to stop US delistings In a significant concession to pressure from Washington, Beijing has revised confidentiality laws in efforts to stop about 270 Chinese companies from being delisted from US exchanges. This is China’s first major rule change to allow disclosure of financial information outside the country.
The day ahead
Outlook for markets The yield on two-year US government bonds exceeded the 30-year for the first time since 2007, as investors continued to fret about the prospect of a recession in America caused by a rapid rise in interest rates to calm inflation. Equities futures trading implied a small loss for shares on Wall Street when trading begins this morning.
Go deeper: Mohamed El-Erian says investors in equities would be wise to make the most of their recent gains and take some chips off the table.
Canada outlook Bank of Canada publishes its quarterly Business Outlook Survey. In its previous release, the central bank warned that “reports of supply chain bottlenecks and labour shortages remain elevated”. (FT, Bank of Canada)
US factory output US February factory orders data are released. According to recently released purchasing managers’ index responses, US “companies are not anticipating a downturn just yet”. (IHS Markit)
Pakistan’s constitutional crisis The country’s Supreme Court is to convene today to hear arguments and later rule on whether Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies had the legal right to dissolve parliament and set the stage for early elections.
Space ambitions Nasa will hold a press conference to discuss the final test stages — called a “wet dress rehearsal” — for its Artemis 1 rocket. (Nasa)
Starbucks chief retires Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson retires today, with Howard Schultz returning to the helm as interim CEO. (Reuters)
What else we’re reading
Have we reached peak globalisation? Dockworkers in Los Angeles have never been busier. The biggest US port reported its highest-ever level of activity in February. Yet policymakers, economists and investors fear globalisation has peaked after 30 years of growth.
Reforms should stop Spacs in their tracks The mania for special purpose acquisition companies was always going to end in tears, writes Brooke Masters. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1,000 such companies have floated on global stock exchanges but now US regulators are planning to tighten rules governing these investment vehicles.
Shanghai lockdown tests limits of Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy The city of 26mn is dealing with rising cases of Omicron but there are signs of growing public anger at the stringent measures introduced by Beijing to control the outbreak.
Five ways to fight the information war For those of us fortunate enough to be a safe distance from the horrors of war, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is providing a crash course in how to think both about accidental misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Tim Harford offers some simple guidelines to follow when interacting with social media.
Why being a manager matters more than ever Management matters. Above all, managers matter, writes Andrew Hill. If nothing else, when managers fail, things have a tendency to go wrong. Bad management leads, at best, to unnecessary misery for staff, and at worst, as two extreme cases suggest, to disaster and death.
Books
Today we begin our search for the best business book of the year. Now in its 18th year, previous winners of the prize include Sarah Frier’s No Filter about the rise of Instagram and John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood, whose reporting exposed the Theranos scandal.
Go deeper: Andrew Hill explains how the recent explosion of business titles has taken them beyond off the page and into streaming services and other media.
Source: Economy - ft.com
