Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

Russia responded on Monday to accusations that its troops have deliberately killed civilians in Ukraine, after images emerged showing bodies in civilian clothes scattered in areas on the outskirts of the capital that were recently recaptured from Russian forces.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova said Sunday that 410 civilians were found dead in towns near Kyiv. Associated Press journalists reported seeing 21 bodies in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital, many of whom appeared to have been shot at close range and showed signs of torture, including some who had their hands tied behind their backs.

During a daily press briefing on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia "categorically dismiss[es] any accusations" of its role in civilian killings and that Moscow does not trust the evidence in Bucha.

"This information should be seriously doubted," Peskov told reporters. "From what we have seen, the video materials cannot be trusted to a large extent, as our specialists from the Defense Ministry have detected signs of video forgery and other kinds of fakes."

The Kremlin demands that "international leaders do not jump to conclusions, do not make hasty unsupported accusations but at least seek information from various sources and at least listen to our arguments," Peskov said.

"The facts, the chronology of events also do not speak in favor of the credibility of these claims," he added.

Russia will reiterate its calls to discuss the matter at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, according to Peskov.

"We believe that the issue should be discussed at the highest level, so we have proposed that it be discussed at the Security Council. We are aware that the initiative has been blocked," he said. "Our diplomats will continue active efforts towards putting this item on the Security Council's agenda. This issue is too serious."

"The initiative aimed to put the item on the Security Council agenda demonstrates that Russia wants and actually demands its discussion at the international level," he added.

Russia said it will repeat its request for the United Nations Security Council to meet on Monday over what Moscow described as "criminal provocations by Ukrainian soldiers and radicals" in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

The United Kingdom's mission to the U.N., which assumed the presidency of the 15-member Security Council for April, has said the group will hold a scheduled discussion on Ukraine on Tuesday, rather than meet on Monday as requested by Russia.

"Yesterday, in the worst English tradition, the British presidency of the U.N. Security Council did not give consent to holding a meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Bucha," Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement via Telegram on Monday. "Russia today will again demand the convening of the U.N. Security Council in connection with the criminal provocations of the Ukrainian military and radicals in this city."

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova announced Sunday that 410 civilians were found dead in recently recaptured towns near the capital as part of an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian forces. Images emerged showing bodies in civilian clothes strewn in the streets of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv.

Russia's deputy representative to the U.N. Security Council, Dmitry Polyansky, said via Twitter on Sunday that Moscow had requested a meeting to be held on Monday "in connection with the monstrous provocation of Ukrainian radicals in Bucha."

Russian forces are continuing to consolidate and reorganize as they refocus their offensive into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Monday.

"Russian troops, including mercenaries from the Russian state-linked Wagner private military company, are being moved into the area," the ministry added.

Wagner is the best-known of an array of Russian mercenary groups and has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian company has deployed fighters to countries in the Middle East and Africa. U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last month that Wagner "has an interest in increasing their footprint in Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a brief speech at the 2022 Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

Zelenskyy, in a video message, said war is the opposite of music, but hopes soon the silence of death will be filled with the sound of music.

"The war doesn't let us choose who survives and who stays in eternal silence. Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos," Zelenskyy told the audience. "They sing to the wounded. In hospitals. Even to those who can't hear them. But the music will break through anyway."