Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describes bodies lying in suburban streets as a "scene from a horror movie." Russia's Defense Ministry says photos and videos of dead bodies in Bucha were a "staged performance… by the Kyiv regime for the Western media."
Officials say the stream of declassified intelligence, which includes regular briefings to journalists in Washington and London and daily Twitter updates from Britain’s Defense Ministry, has several aims.
The Russian president "is a war criminal,” asserts Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Kremlin officials call Ukraine "hostile," but say talks for a ceasefire are ongoing.
"Now I do not have time to deal with all the traitors but gradually they will all be punished," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says after firing two top security officials who he claimed are "traitors."
The Russians had said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv to help negotiations with Ukraine along. Russian President Vladimir Putin warns Europe to pay for gas in rubles or else.
"I want to underscore that the Russian armed forces do not strike civilian targets as part of the special military operation," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says.
The White House says the Russian president is not fully aware of military using and losing conscripts in Ukraine, or the extent to which the Russian economy is being damaged by economic sanctions imposed by the West. UN says the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeds its worst-case estimate.
Shelling further tempers optimism about possible progress in talks aimed at ending the war. Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland join as countries continue to expel Moscow's envoys.
Even as negotiators from the two sides assembled in Istanbul, Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces hit an oil depot in western Ukraine late Monday
