Neighbors gather next to a mass grave in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers with tied hands, gunshot wounds to the head and signs of torture after Russian troops withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv, officials on Sunday called for an investigation into war crimes and sanctions against Russia.
Associated Press reporters in Buka, a small town northwest of the capital, saw the bodies of at least nine people in civilian clothing who appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs. The AP also saw two bodies wrapped in plastic, tied with tape and dumped in a ditch.
Officials said they were documenting evidence of alleged atrocities in the case of Russian officials prosecuting for war crimes. To plead guilty, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court must show a pattern of indiscriminately fatal attacks on civilians during the invasion of Russia.
Oleksiy Erestovich, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr ZelenskySaid that many residents in the streets of Buka and the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel were seen as “scenes from a horror movie”.
Erestovich said that some had been shot in the head and their hands were tied, and some were showing signs of torture. There are also reports of rape, he said.
A day earlier, AP reporters saw Ukrainian soldiers removing at least six bodies with cables from a road in Bucha in case the Russians framed the corpses with explosives before their return. Local residents said the dead were civilians killed without provocation, a claim that could not be independently verified.
“What happened in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv can only be described as genocide,” Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko told the German newspaper Bild. Klitschko called for an immediate end to Russian gas imports from other countries, saying they were funding the killings.
“Now not a single penny should go to Russia. That bloody money is used to kill people. The gas and oil ban should come immediately,” the mayor said.
On 24 February Russian troops moved into Ukraine from three sides, and troops entering Belarus from the north spent weeks trying to clear a path to Kyiv. Their progress was halted by the steadfast defiance of Ukraine’s defenders, and Moscow said this week it would focus the offensive further elsewhere.
There were signs of fierce fighting everywhere in the wake of Russian troops retreating north into Belarus: destroyed armored vehicles of both armies lay in streets and fields with military gear scattered. Ukraine’s military said its troops were continuing search operations in areas outside the capital for mines, dead and stranded Russian fighters.
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Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba also called for tougher sanctions on Russia, including a complete energy embargo on discoveries north of Kyiv. Kuleba tweeted on Sunday that the “Bucha massacre was intentional,” alleging that “Russia aims to eliminate as many Ukrainians as possible.”
European Council President Charles Michel wrote on Twitter that he was shocked by the “horrific images of atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military” in the capital region. The European Union and non-governmental organizations were assisting in the effort to preserve evidence of the war. The crime was, according to Michel, who promised “further EU sanctions” against Russia.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the UK separately condemned and said Russia would be held accountable.
“We will not allow Russia to cover up its involvement in these atrocities through cynical propaganda and will ensure that the reality of Russia’s actions is brought to the fore,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
As Russia withdrew from the capital, other parts of the country were put under siege. Russia says it is sending troops to eastern UkraineWhere Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine’s military for eight years.
Mariupol, a southeastern port on the Azov Sea, was cut off from the rest of the country as Russian ground forces fought to capture the city. About 100,000 civilians – less than a quarter of the pre-war population of 430,000 – are believed to have been trapped there with little or no food, water, fuel and medicine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it expected a team of nine workers and three vehicles to reach Mariupol on Sunday to help evacuate residents on Saturday, but cautioned “the situation on the ground is unstable and is changing rapidly.” is under the.”
Ukrainian officials said Russia agreed Similar agreements have been repeatedly broken down a few days ago to allow safe passage from the city, which has been the site of some of the worst attacks and greatest suffering, but under constant shelling.
A supermarket parking lot in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya has become the staging ground for thousands of people fleeing Mariupol.
Pecheva Olena, who drove it out of the besieged town, told Britain’s Sky News that she was forced to leave her husband’s body unburied after being killed in the shooting.
“There was a gunfight, and we tried to pull him away, but it was too much, we couldn’t do it,” explained his daughter, Kristina Katrikova.
While the geography of the battlefield changed, little changed for many Ukrainians on the 39th day of the war, which saw more than 4 million people flee the country as refugees and millions more from their homes.
The mayor of Chernihiv, which has also been under attack for weeks, said on Sunday that continued Russian shelling had destroyed 70% of the northern city. Like Mariupol, Chernihiv has been cut off from shipments of food and other supplies.
“People wonder how they can live until tomorrow,” said Mayor Vladislav Atroshenko.
On Sunday morning, Russian forces fired missiles at the Black Sea port of Odessa in southern Ukraine, sending clouds of black smoke over parts of the city. The Russian military said the targets were an oil processing plant and fuel depot around Odessa, which is Ukraine’s largest port and home to its navy.
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“I live in that eight-floor building. At six in the morning, Russia launched an attack, and this piece of rock reached my house, ”said Masyenko Ilya, who lives near one of the targeted facilities.
Odessa city council said Ukraine’s air defense shot down some missiles before striking the city. Ukraine’s military spokesman Vladislav Nazarov said there were no casualties in the attack.
The regional governor in Kharkiv said on Sunday that Russian artillery and tanks carried out more than 20 strikes in the past day in Ukraine’s second-largest city and its outskirts in the country’s northeast.
The head of Ukraine’s delegation to talks with Russia said Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of the draft resolution discussed during one-on-one talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation has been provided.
The Ukrainian negotiator, David Arkhamia, said on Ukrainian TV that he hoped the proposal was developed enough that Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet to discuss it. But Vladimir Medinsky, the top Russian negotiator in talks with Ukraine, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying it was too early to talk about a meeting between the two leaders.
As his country’s troops recaptured the area north of the capital from the departing Russian troops, Zelensky called on all Ukrainians to “do whatever they could to thwart the enemy’s strategy and undermine its capabilities”. , called upon to do.
“Peace will not be the result of any decision that the enemy makes somewhere in Moscow. There is no need to entertain empty hopes that they will leave our land. We can achieve peace only by fighting,” Zelensky said late Saturday. said.
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