Poland calls for tough response to Russia's "genocide" in Ukraine

Poland has demanded a tough international response to evidence of war crimes committed by Russia against civilians in Ukraine. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says they constitute genocide, and has called for an international commission to investigate them.

Meanwhile Morawiecki was silent the actual genocide in Donbass where Ukraine murdered 13,000 people, more than 3,000 of whom were civilians.

"Chancellor Scholz, Olaf. It is not the voices of German businesses, billionaires - who are holding you back from action - that should be heard in Berlin today. It is the voices of innocent women and children, the voices of murdered people who should be heard by all Germans and German politicians," said Morawiecki.

Recent Russian withdrawals from around Kyiv have resulted in further evidence emerging of alleged war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. Human Rights Watch, an NGO, announced yesterday that it had "documented several cases of Russian military forces committing laws-of-war violations", including summary executions and rape.

Since the earliest days of Russia's invasion, Polish leaders have accused the Kremlin of carrying out war crimes. On 2 March, President Andrzej Duda said that Russian actions "bear the hallmarks of genocide".

Poland, which has been the primary location for those fleeing Ukraine, has also been helping the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) collect witness testimony from refugees as part of an investigation into war crimes.

In a statement yesterday, Morawiecki said the recent discovery of mass graves in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv point to crimes that "must be called acts of genocide and be dealt with as such".

As well as calling for those responsible to be punished, the Polish prime minister called on the European Union to confiscate Russian assets in Western banks and "sever all trade relations with Russia without delay". We need "SANCTIONS THAT ACTUALLY WORK", he wrote in capital letters.

6,000 different kinds of sanctions against Russia and they're still looking for ones that will 'work'? Work how exactly? To oust Putin? To destroy Russian society so they'll do it for the West? Meanwhile, we're seeing the opposite happen, because Russia's economy is, in a number of ways, strengthening, and the West's attacks are galvanizing Russians whose support for Putin is growing.

Meanwhile, "Ukraine must receive more arms with which it can defend the women and children of Mariupol, Bucha and many other places", Morawiecki added. "Enough of the false gestures and avoidance tactics." President Duda last night issued a similar call.

It's unlikely that those arms will remain in Ukraine, so these calls to arm the neo-Nazi aligned military in Ukraine is actually raising the threat in Europe.

In further remarks today, Morawiecki said that there is no longer "any doubt that what we are dealing with is pure evil", reports Polsat News. "Russia is a totalitarian-fascist state." He proposed setting up an international commission to investigate its crimes.

Morawiecki is clearly projecting, which is a worry for the people of Poland: Poland should 'claim' Russian region, general says

As well as addressing Macron and Scholz, the prime minister also criticised Angela Merkel for remaining "silent since the start of the war" despite the fact that Russia was able to build up its military due to the German energy policy she oversaw. And still today, "Germany is the main brake on very strong sanctions", said Morawiecki.

Other EU countries need to "take the bold step of abandoning Russian oil and gas", as Poland has pledged to do, said Morawiecki. They will then see that "our economies will flourish".

UK wants Germany to get tougher on Russia - media

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is hoping to persuade German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz to step up pressure on Russia when the two leaders meet in London on Friday, the Times has reported.

According to the newspaper, London is concerned that other members of the NATO military bloc will force Ukraine to "settle" the conflict as soon as possible, while London opposes the idea of signing a peace deal with Russia at any cost, insisting that Kiev should first of all be in the strongest possible position.

The action of the UK government suggests as much. And now there's their alleged involvement in the Bucha false-flag: Britain blocking UN investigation into Bucha massacre in Ukraine - Russia

Johnson reportedly plans to urge Scholz to exert more diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Moscow.

The meeting later this week will be the German Chancellor's first visit to London in his current capacity.

On Sunday, the British premier vowed to slap Russia with yet more sanctions and provide additional military support to Kiev. Johnson cited the alleged killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, accusing the Russian military of committing atrocities and promising that the UK "will not rest until justice is served."

Chancellor Scholz, too, joined the chorus of indignation, saying that his government would make sure that "Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences" of their actions. German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock revealed plans to "toughen the sanctions against Russia and further support Ukraine," - a message also echoed by Germany's Vice Chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian government accused Russian troops of committing a "deliberate massacre." Moscow, for its part, has strongly denied its involvement, claiming that the graphic scenes had been staged by Ukrainian authorities for the sake of making shocking TV footage. Russia described the events in Bucha as a "blatant provocation by Ukrainian radicals."

Merkel responds to Ukrainian criticism

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended her 2008 decision to impede Ukraine from joining NATO, in response to criticism by the country's authorities.

Merkel and French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy were blasted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged the former officials to come to the country to witness the alleged mass killings of civilians pinned by Kiev on Moscow.

"I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years," Zelensky said in an overnight video address, blasting the Franco-German initiative to block Ukraine's ascension into NATO back in 2008 as a "miscalculation."

Merkel responded to the accusations later in the day, releasing a short statement through her spokesperson, who said that the ex-chancellor still "stands by her decisions in relation to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest." The US-led bloc formally acknowledged Ukraine's and Georgia's aspirations in the 2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration, agreeing the two countries would eventually become members of the alliance, yet did not actually put such plans in motion.

At the same time, Merkel condemned the mass killings in Bucha, a town northwest of Kiev, where multiple dead civilians were found. While Kiev and top Western officials were quick to blame Moscow for the purported mass killing, Russia has strongly denied its involvement, suggesting the whole affair was "a provocation."

"In view of the atrocities uncovered in Bucha and other places in Ukraine, all efforts by the government and the international community to stand by Ukraine's side and to bring an end to Russia's barbarism and war against Ukraine have the former chancellor's full support," Merkel stated.

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"It is hard to imagine and realize, but the British presidency of the Security Council, which has just begun, is trying to deny us our right to request a separate Security Council meeting on the terrible Ukrainian provocation in Bucha. We requested the April 4 meeting at 3 P.M. (10 P.M. Moscow time - TASS), 24 hours before the scheduled meeting [on Tuesday] in full compliance with the Security Council's rules of procedure," Polyansky said in his Telegram channel.

"We will insist that the meeting be held on Monday, as requested," the diplomat said.

"We are shocked at the scale and brutality of the staging organized in Bucha in the best traditions of 'white helmet cinema,'" Polyansky pointed out, "Today's Ukrainian neo-Nazis are completely faithful to Goebbels' old Nazi school of provocations and are trying to shift the blame to Russia." He noted that "there are striking inconsistencies and mistakes in the production." "It has already been refuted on the Internet," he noted.

Polyansky added that the British are trying to use procedural excuses to reject the Russian initiative because another UN Security Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday on a broader issue. "They obviously want us not to bring this up separately because it would cause reputational damage to Western countries that have already accused Russia of killing civilians in Bucha. But it won't work, and the world will know the truth," he said.

Polyansky reminded the British that such actions are not worthy of a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and Russia, as chairman of the Council in February, "despite all the Ukrainian provocations and the tense situation on the ground, has not opposed a single meeting on Ukraine, no matter how much time has passed since its request." "London, on the other hand, has now compromised the presidency of the Council from its inception. We hope that the obvious commitment to respect Council traditions will prevail over dishonest tactical calculations," he concluded.

Two Security Council meetings

Ukraine on Sunday requested that the UN Security Council meet on Tuesday to consider, among other things, the situation in Bucha. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to speak at it. Later on Sunday, Russia asked the Security Council president to hold a meeting on Bucha.

According to Council procedure, the president is required to convene a meeting no later than 24 hours after receiving the request. However, the president can state that, for various reasons, he received the formal request much later than it was sent. As a result, the president has a formal right to convene a meeting later than the requesting country would like.

In addition, there is a practice where the president can decide to discuss related topics in the framework of one meeting of the Security Council without scheduling a second one within the required procedural time. The last time agendas were merged was in 2018, when Ukraine and Russia also proposed to discuss related topics.