Defence Minister Peeni Henare thanks Defence Force personnel at Whenuapai Airbase before they boarded a C-130 Hercules aircraft bound for Europe to help distribute military aid to Ukraine. Video / NZ Herald
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the war in Ukraine will not end until it has reached "its full completion".
Putin, speaking for the first time since Russian forces were pushed out of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, also said in a rambling speech that awful scenes from Bucha described by many as "genocide" are "fake".
Putin was speaking during a news briefing at Vostochny Cosmodrome 5,550km east of Moscow.
Asked by reporters if Russia would fulfil the goals of its "special military operation" that commenced almost two months ago, Putin was confident.
He said it will "continue until its full completion and the fulfilment of the tasks that have been set".
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech at a rocket assembly factory during his visit to the Vostochny cosmodrome. Photo / AP
The Russian leader who has been condemned universally by Western leaders for starting the war in Ukraine and killing civilians, accused the US and its allies of double standards.
"Have you seen how this Syrian city was turned to rubble by American aircraft? Corpses lay in the ruins for months decomposing … Nobody cared. No one even noticed," he said.
"There was no such silence when provocations were staged in Syria, when they portrayed the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. Then it turned out that it was fake. It's the same kind of fake in Bucha."
The reference to Bucha follows comments from US President Joe Biden who said Putin was a "war criminal" after the discovery of hundreds of civilian corpses in the city.
Biden was also scathing of the actions of Russian forces in the devastated port city of Mariupol.
He said the West is concerned about a massive onslaught across Ukraine's east that Washington warned might involve chemical weapons.
"Yes, I called it genocide," Biden told reporters, hours after employing the term during a speech in Iowa – its first use by a member of his administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly accused Moscow of attempted "genocide", swiftly responded by tweeting at Biden: "True words of a true leader."
"Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil," Zelenskyy wrote, renewing his appeal for more heavy weapons to "prevent further Russian atrocities".
Adding to the catalogue of horrors emerging from Ukraine, Zelenskyy sounded the alarm on today about snowballing allegations of rape and sexual assault by Russian forces.
A woman pulls her bags past houses damaged during fighting in eastern Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 8, 2022. Photo / AP
"Hundreds of cases of rape have been recorded, including those of young girls and very young children. Even of a baby!" the Ukrainian leader told Lithuanian politicians via video link.
In the latest discovery fuelling allegations of Russian atrocities, Ukrainian prosecutors said six people had been found shot dead in the basement of a building outside the capital.
While the toll on towns occupied during the offensive to take Kyiv is still coming to light, the heaviest civilian toll is feared to be in Mariupol, where Zelenskyy said he believed Russia had killed "tens of thousands".
As fighting dragged toward its seventh week, the Ukrainian army was fighting desperately to defend strategically located Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 12, 2022. Photo / AP
Moscow is believed to be trying to connect occupied Crimea with Russian-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas, and has laid siege to the city, once home to more than 400,000 people.
Reports emerged on Monday from Ukraine's Azov battalion that a Russian drone had dropped a "poisonous substance" in the area, with people experiencing respiratory failure and neurological problems.
The world's chemical weapons watchdog said it was "concerned" by the unconfirmed reports coming from Mariupol, and was "monitoring closely".
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned the use of such weapons by Moscow would "elicit a response not just from the United States, but from the international community," without elaborating.
