VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis once again pleaded for an end to the bloodshed and violence in Ukraine after images of innocent civilians apparently executed in Bucha sparked outrage and horror around the world.

"The recent news of the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, attest to new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha," the pope said April 6 before concluding his weekly general audience.

The world is witnessing "ever-more horrendous acts of cruelty done against civilians, unarmed women and children, whose innocent blood cries out to heaven and implores, 'End this war. Silence the weapons. Stop sowing death and destruction,'" he said.

Videos and photographs released April 3, after Russian troops retreated from Bucha and other towns, showed dead bodies in the streets and in the yards of homes. Many appeared to have been shot in the head, execution style, and the hands of many of the corpses were bound.

Although Russia dismissed the accusations of war crimes as "fake news," evidence of mass executions sparked outrage, prompting several countries to expel Russian diplomats from their lands and leading to renewed calls for tougher actions against Russia.

The pope then invited to the stage several Ukrainian children who recently arrived in Italy and asked the crowd to "greet them and pray together with them."

The children, accompanied by two women, went up to the pope. One young boy held a hand-made poster of the Ukrainian flag, with a smaller Italian flag in the center and outlines of small hands.

The pilgrims present at the audience hall applauded loudly as the pope welcomed the children, with one shouting, "Slava Ukraini" ("Glory to Ukraine")."

Gently rolling up the Ukrainian flag, the pope reverently kissed it before handing out chocolate Easter eggs to the children, prompting one of the women, holding a baby in her arms, to wipe away tears from her eyes.

"These children were forced to flee and come to a foreign land. This is one of the fruits of war," Pope Francis said. "Let us not forget them and let us not forget the Ukrainian people."

Kharkiv bishop accuses Russia of terror tactics 

WARSAW, Poland -- A bishop in Ukraine accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting aid centers and of destroying the port of Mariupol to scare other cities into surrendering.

"The Russians look for aid and medical distribution points where people gather -- this is why charitable work here is now so dangerous," said Bishop Pavlo Goncharuk of Kharkiv.

"As for Mariupol, this is now completely in ruins -- although we don't know how many civilians have died there, it certainly runs into thousands. I'm certain it was selected as an example, ostentatiously used as a firing range and shelled to rubble to show what will happen if other cities continue resisting."

In a March 31 interview, he said his own city of Kharkiv, with almost 2 million mostly Russian-speaking inhabitants before the war, also remained under constant bombardment despite being largely reduced to "ruins and ashes."

Four-fifths of local Catholics have fled the city's five parishes, Bishop Goncharuk said, and Masses were no longer being celebrated for fear Russian artillery would deliberately strike them.

Jonathan Luxmoore contributed to this story.