Images of brutality in the suburbs of Kyiv after Russian retreat have caused global horror and demands for war-crimes investigations.
Civilians have been found dead, with their hands tied and gunshots to the backs of their heads, KGB style. Mass grave discovered nearby contained nearly 300 bodies, including women and a 14-year-old boy.
US President Joe Biden Monday called the atrocities committed by Russia and President Vladimir Putin in Bucha a “war crime” but said it was not a genocide, adding that he is looking into more sanctions on Russia.
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, said on Twitter that the killings amounted to “senseless murder of innocent civilians in Ukraine.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called them “unspeakable horrors.”
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement. He called for an independent investigation that “leads to effective accountability.”
In a video address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian troops “murderers, torturers, rapists, looters.”
“Concentrated evil has visited our land,” he said.
The Ukrainian military’s success in taking back more than 30 towns and villages in the Kyiv region has revealed gore and destruction left behind by Russian troops.
President Zelensky, in his video address, used a series of questions to describe the senselessness of the recent discoveries. “Why were ordinary civilians in an ordinary peaceful city tortured to death? Why were women strangled after their earrings were ripped out of their ears? How could women be raped and killed in front of children? How could their corpses be desecrated even after death? Why did they crush the bodies of people with tanks?” he asked.
The Kremlin has denied any responsibility for atrocities, instead blaming Ukrainian forces, without evidence, of staging the deaths of civilians.
“During the time this settlement was under the control of the Russian armed forces, not a single local resident was hurt,” the Russian Ministry of Defence said.
After retreating from around Kyiv, Russian troops are expected to regroup for new attacks on eastern areas of the country, including Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv.
