Russian Digest

Top daily stories I'm keeping an eye on

1. Sumy Oblast Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky reported on April 5 that in Konotop district of Sumy Oblast, the Ukrainian military found the bodies of at least three tortured civilians in places where Russian forces had been stationed. Russians withdrew from Sumy region on April 3.

2. Spanish police and US FBI agents have searched a £70m superyacht in Mallorca linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian billionaire the US government says is a close ally of Vladimir Putin. via Guardian

3. Russia’s claim that civilians were massacred after their soldiers left was debunked by the images provided by Maxar Technologies. The images provided to the New York Times show that a number of dead bodies had been on the street of Bucha since March 11, when Russia, by its own account, occupied the town. Russia called the images of atrocities in Bucha “another hoax” and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on what it called “provocations of Ukrainian radicals.” via NYT

4. Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, a local council member from the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform, was pronounced “mayor” of Mariupol on April 4 during a meeting of party members. According to Petro Andryushchenko, an advisor to the real mayor of Mariupol, the Russian military who control part of Mariupol, was assisting him. Ivashchenko’s show has no legal meaning: That’s not how mayors are elected. via Ukrainian Pravda

5. The United States stopped the Russian government on Monday from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at American banks, in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on Moscow and eat into its holdings of U.S. dollars. via Reuters