BUCHA: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday visited sites of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, decrying war as “an absurdity in the 21st century” and urging Russia to cooperate with an international investigation into atrocities.

The UN chief and his team were “shocked” by the proximity of the Russian strikes which slammed into central Kyiv as they were visiting but were all “safe”, a spokesman said.

“It is a war zone but it is shocking that it happened close to us,” Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian office, told AFP, without saying how close they were to the point of impact, with one missile hitting a residential building, wounding three people.

Making his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, Guterres toured several towns and villages outside Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of killing civilians.

Biden seeks $33bn to support Kyiv; US alleges Russia plans fake independence votes in seized territory

“I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic,” the UN chief said in Borodianka, a ruined town north-east of the Ukrainian capital.

“The war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil,” he added. “I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept, to cooperate with the ICC,” he implored the Kremlin.

The UN head later met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Tuesday, he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, repeating calls for both countries to work together to set up “safe and effective” humanitarian corridors in war-torn Ukraine.

Biden seeks $33bn for Ukraine

President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday for $33 billion to support Ukraine — a dramatic escalation of US funding for the war against Russia — as well as new legal tools to siphon assets from Russian oligarchs.

The vast funding request includes over $20bn for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5bn in direct economic assistance to the government and $3bn in humanitarian and food security aid.

“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said at the White House. “The cost of this fight — it’s not cheap — but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”

Biden is also seeking the ability to seize more money from Russian oligarchs to pay for the war effort. His proposal would have lawmakers hand his administration new capabilities, letting US officials seize more oligarchs’ assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine and further criminalize sanctions dodging, the White House said.

The steps include letting the Justice Department use the strict US racketeering law once deployed against the mafia, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, to build cases against people who evade sanctions.

Biden also wants to give prosecutors more time to build such cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of five.

The United States and its European allies have frozen $30bn of assets held by wealthy individuals with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, the Biden administration has said.

Fake independence votes

The United States accused Russia on Thursday of planning to stage fake independence votes to justify its conquest of territory in Ukraine, as Russian forces step­ped up their assault on the east.

The US mission to the OSCE security body said the Kremlin might attempt “sham referenda” in southern and eastern areas it had captured since the Feb 24 invasion, using “a well-worn playbook that steals from history’s darkest chapters”.

“These falsified, illegitimate referenda will undoubtedly be accompanied by a wave of abuses against those who seek to oppose or undermine Moscow’s plans,” it said. “The international community must make clear that any such referendum will never be recognised as legitimate.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2022