If the Russian troop withdrawal from around Kyiv has signalled a new phase of the war in Ukraine, it appears that evidence of mass killings of civilians in Bucha could herald a hardening of approach from the west.
In more evidence of the warped reality surrounding the Kremlin, Russia cynically claimed the bodies found strewn across the streets of Bucha were the result of an inside job, but it sounded increasingly desperate set against an outpouring of international condemnation.
Western intelligence agencies last week said they believed Vladimir Putin was being misinformed about the nature of the war by a cadre of yes-men. And, as this week’s cover art by the Guardian Weekly’s art director Andrew Stocks conveys, very few people are thought to have the Russian president’s ear. Who are they, and what is going on inside Putin’s inner circle? Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer try to join the dots.
Then, Daniel Boffey reports from Bucha, where shellshocked residents emerged from basements and hiding places to find their unimaginable horror filling their streets.
France gears up for a presidential election this month that could have profound shock waves for Europe. As polls showed the race tightening between the centrist president Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, Kim Willsher meets the young followers of the incumbent who hope to get their man over the line. Then, Angelique Chrisafis profiles Le Pen, with some fearing that the far right’s time in France may be about to come.
What would you pack if your life was in danger and you had to run? That’s the question we put to activists, journalists and people at threat from extreme climatic conditions, who reveal the contents of the escape bags they keep by the door.
In Culture, Simon Hattenstone takes a stroll through New York with the Booker-winning author Douglas Stuart, and we ask whether the curtain will fall on Will Smith’s acting career in the light of his slap in the face to Chris Rock at the Oscars.
