Russia-Ukraine war live: Turkey approves Finland Nato bid; Ukraine marks Bucha massacre anniversary | Ukraine

Bucha, a leafy suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, became synonymous with Russian brutality after a military retreat last March revealed ravaged streets littered with civilian bodies. Ukrainian authorities put the civilian death toll in areas of the Kyiv region liberated from Russian forces at 1,137, including 461 killed in Bucha alone.

International investigators are collecting evidence in Bucha and in other places where Ukraine says Russian troops committed widespread atrocities in their invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022. Moscow denies the allegations.

Russia’s forces abandoned their assault on Kyiv a month into the war, withdrawing from Bucha in the north and other areas. Fighting rages on in the east and south.

Reuters has this story on the one-year anniversary of the discovery of the massacre:

Today Bucha is full of life. Young families crisscross central streets and the sounds of construction clatter in the crisp spring air.

On a recent afternoon, tractors trundled up and down Vokzalna Street, where an internationally funded reconstruction project is aimed at erasing the traces of war.

The scars of war are strewn across the town, where some high rises remain battered and a scrapyard is full of cars and military vehicles destroyed during last year’s fighting.

Fences along Yablunska Street, where dozens of residents were killed, are still riddled with bullet holes.

Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, clearing the way for Helsinki to join the western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine.

The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership, after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill this week.

The president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said this month that Finland had secured Turkey’s blessing after moves to support its promised crackdown on groups seen by Ankara as terrorists, and to free up defence exports.

Finland and Sweden asked to join the transatlantic military alliance last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the process has been held up by Turkey and Hungary. The parliaments of all Nato members must ratify newcomers.

Sweden’s faces objections from Ankara over claims it is harbouring what it considers members of terrorist groups. Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin said soon after the Turkish vote: “Finland stands with Sweden now and in the future and supports its application.”

Read on here:

Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.

Our top story this morning:

Finland is a step closer to joining Nato after Turkey’s parliament approved a bill ratifying its membership. Turkey was the last of the western military alliance’s 30 members to approve Finland’s membership bid, after Hungary’s legislature passed a similar bill this week.

Meanwhile Ukraine is commemorating the one year anniversary of the discovery of the Bucha massacre. The leafy suburb of the capital Kyiv became synonymous with Russian brutality after a military retreat last March revealed ravaged streets littered with civilian bodies.

“For many residents of the Kyiv region, the past year has become the most horrific in their entire lives. And the liberation of the Kyiv region has become a symbol of the fact that Ukraine will be able to win this war,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the key recent developments:

• The White House says it has new evidence that Russia is looking again to North Korea for weapons and munitions to fuel the war in Ukraine, this time in a deal that would provide Pyongyang with much-needed food and other commodities in return.

• Russian authorities have arrested a US journalist working in the country and accused him of espionage, a charge that could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Evan Gershkovich, a well-respected reporter from the Wall Street Journal, was detained on Wednesday during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Ekaterinburg.

• The US is “deeply concerned” over Gershkovich’s detention. The state department “has been in direct touch” with the Russian government over the the journalist’s detention, “including actively working to secure consular access” for him, the White House confirmed.

• Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will chair a UN security council meeting in April when Russia assumes the international body’s presidency, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said. Russia’s coming UN security council presidency was “the worst joke ever for April Fool’s Day”, said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.

• Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said Moscow will continue to give the US advance notice about its missile tests despite suspending participation in the New Start nuclear arms treaty, reversing a statement he made on Wednesday. The White House said on Tuesday that the US had told Russia it would cease exchanging certain data on its nuclear forces after Moscow’s refusal to do so.

• Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to call up 147,000 Russian citizens for statutory military service as part of the country’s spring conscription campaign, Russian state media reported. The Russian leader last signed a routine conscription campaign in September, calling up 120,000 citizens for statutory service, the state-run Tass news agency said.

• Russian authorities are preparing to launch a significant recruitment campaign aimed at signing up 400,000 new troops to fight in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update, citing Russian media. Moscow was presenting the campaign “as a drive for volunteer, professional personnel, rather than a new, mandatory mobilisation”, it said, adding that in practice regional authorities might try to coerce men to join up. “It is highly unlikely that the campaign will attract 400,000 genuine volunteers,” it said.

• A Russian man who fled house arrest after being sentenced to jail for discrediting Russia in social media posts, following an investigation prompted by his daughter’s anti-war drawings, was arrested in Belarus, his lawyer said. Alexei Moskalyov, 54, was sentenced to two years for his criticism of Kremlin policies in social media posts. Police investigated him after his 13-year-old daughter, Maria, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”.

• The International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has hit back at criticism by some European governments – including Ukraine’s – of a plan for a full return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sport. “It is deplorable to see that some governments do not want to respect the majority within the Olympic movement and all stakeholders, nor the autonomy of sport,” Bach said on Thursday.

• King Charles III has lauded the unity between the UK and Germany in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “the scourge of war is back in Europe”. Both the UK and Germany had shown “vital leadership”, the king said in a bilingual speech in the Bundestag, praising Berlin’s decision to provide large military support to Ukraine as “remarkably courageous, important and appreciated”.