Ukraine, which this weekend retook control of the entire kyiv region from the Russian army, blamed Russian leaders for the “murder” and “torture” committed in the city of Bucha, 30 kilometers northwest of the city. capital.
Its president, Volodomir Zelensky, even accused Russia of committing “genocide” of civilians in his country. The Ukrainian leader assured that he had created a “special mechanism” to investigate Russian “war crimes” and that it would work with national and international experts.
“It is time to do everything possible so that the war crimes of the Russian army are the last manifestation of this evil on earth,” he said.
On Sunday, local rescuers found 75 bodies in a mass grave in Bucha. The bodies of 410 civilians in other territories near kyiv recovered by Ukrainian troops were also found, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova reported.
The day before, AFP journalists discovered some 20 bodies scattered on a street in Bucha and the city’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, reported that 280 bodies had been buried in mass graves.
The images went around the world and triggered a series of condemnations at the international level, as well as calls to toughen sanctions against Moscow.
“HORRIBLE” AND “UNACCEPTABLE”
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians being killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
According to the international organization, which asks to preserve the evidence and calls for an independent investigation, the discovery of mass graves raises serious questions about possible war crimes.
However, the UN also said it could not be ruled out that the bodies included those of “Ukrainian or Russian soldiers who died during hostilities”.
Both the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the European Union (EU) expressed their horror and asked that those responsible be brought before the international court in The Hague.
The ICC has already recently opened an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The United States and NATO were also horrified and warned that the withdrawal of Russian troops did not imply the end of the violence.
The killings of civilians in Bucha are “horrible” and “unacceptable,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, described them as “a punch in the stomach”.
Russia, on the other hand, rejected the accusations and claimed that the images of murdered civilians were a Ukrainian fabrication.
“During the time this town was under the control of the Russian armed forces, not a single local resident suffered violent actions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
However, Western countries are calling for tougher sanctions on Moscow. “More sanctions and help from the EU are on the way,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Sunday.
“This terrible war crime cannot remain unanswered,” said the German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck in the German newspaper Bild. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made similar words, promising to tighten sanctions against Moscow.
NEW BOMBARDMENTS IN THE EAST
The war in Ukraine has so far left some 20,000 dead, according to Ukrainian authorities. According to the UN, more than 4 million refugees have fled from Ukraine since the invasion and in total there are more than 10 million displaced people.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 500,000 people have returned to the country since the start of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to bombard towns in the south and east of the territory.
At least seven people were killed and 34 wounded this Sunday in a Russian bombardment on a residential neighborhood in Kharkov, in northeastern Ukraine, the local prosecutor’s office said.
In Rubishne, a town near Lugansk, one person was killed and three were injured in a Russian shelling of a hospital, regional governor Sergei Gaïdaï said on Telegram.
Further south, in Mikolaiv, a Russian bombardment left one person dead and 14 wounded, according to the region’s governor Vitaliy Kim.
Explosions were also heard in Odessa this Sunday, according to AFP journalists. The attack left no victims, according to an official from the Southern regional command, Vladislav Nazarov, although a refinery and fuel tanks were destroyed.
The facilities supplied fuel to the Ukrainian forces in the Mikolaiv direction, the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
Odessa is a strategic city as its large port provides access to the Black Sea and the rest of Ukraine.
Russian efforts to consolidate its control in southern and eastern Ukraine have so far been undermined by resistance in Mariupol, despite weeks of devastating attacks.
At least 5,000 people have died in the siege of that other port city in the south of the country, according to local authorities, while the 160,000 who remain there suffer from lack of food, water and electricity.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
This Sunday’s attacks come as the UN’s top humanitarian envoy, Martin Griffiths, seeks a ceasefire in the fighting in Moscow on Sunday.
The head of the Russian negotiators in the peace talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinski, praised on Sunday a “more realistic” position of kyiv, ready under conditions to accept a status of neutrality, as requested by Moscow.
Medinski noted that a proper draft agreement is not yet ready to be submitted to the presidents of both countries.
The Ukrainian government proposes Ukraine’s neutrality and renounce joining NATO, but on the condition that its security is guaranteed by other countries against Russia.
It also proposes negotiations to resolve the status of the Ukrainian Donbas and Crimea.
