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IN BRIEF: Recent developments in the Ukraine-Russia conflict

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Mass grave found near Kyiv, official says

A grave with dozens of civilians has been found in Buzova village near Kyiv, a Ukrainian official said, the latest reported mass grave to be discovered after Russian forces withdrew from areas north of the capital to focus their assault on the east.

Taras Didych, head of the Dmytrivka community that includes Buzova, said the bodies were found in a ditch near a petrol station. He said the number of dead had yet to be confirmed.

“Now we are returning to life but during the occupation we had our ‘hotspots’, many civilians died,” Didych told Ukrainian television late on Saturday.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report.

Mounting civilian casualties have triggered widespread international condemnation and new sanctions, in particular over hundreds of deaths in the town of Bucha, to the northwest of Kyiv that until just over a week ago was occupied by Russian forces.

Two killed, several injured by Russian shelling: Kharkiv governor

Two people were killed and several injured on Sunday in the Ukrainian town of Derhachy in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said in a Facebook post.

Russian forces had carried out 66 artillery attacks across several regions the governor said, adding: “Two people were killed, there are casualties. As you can see, the Russian army continues to ‘fight’ with the civilian population, because it has no victories at the front,” Synyehubov said.

Reuters could not independently verify the details.

Pope calls for Easter truce in Ukraine leading to peace negotiations

Pope Francis on Sunday called for an Easter truce in Ukraine, leading to negotiations and peace.

“Put the weapons down!” he said at the end of a Palm Sunday service for tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“Let an Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations,” he said.

Ukraine conflict hurts Russian science

Since 2000, dozens of international scientists arrived each year at Russia’s remote Northeast Science Station on the Kolyma River in Siberia to study climate change in the Arctic environment.

Not this year, though.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry froze the funding used to pay personnel at the research station and to maintain instruments that measure how quickly climate change is thawing Arctic permafrost and how much methane – a potent planet-warming gas – is being released.

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