The shocking images of the massacre in Bucha were recorded by the French Agency on Saturday, the same day that Ukraine announced the liberation of the city from the Russian troops. Reports of alleged Russian atrocities are emerging as its forces retreat from areas near Kyiv after a failed attempt to encircle the capital. The city of Bucha has endured five weeks of almost continuous fires. Officials and rights groups are now blaming civilian deaths on the departing Russian forces. “The bodies of those executed are still lining Jabluska Street in Bucha. Their hands are tied behind their backs with white” political “rags, they were shot in the back of the head. So you can imagine what kind of lawlessness they committed here.” Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told Reuters on Saturday.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Sunday that reports from cities in the Kiev region revealed a “post-apocalyptic picture” of life under Russian occupation. “This is a special appeal to draw the world’s attention to those war crimes, crimes against humanity committed by Russian troops in Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel,” Arestovich said. “These are liberated cities, an image from horror movies, a post-apocalyptic image.” “Victims of these war crimes have already been found, including raped women who tried to burn, local government officials killed, children killed, the elderly killed, men killed, many of them with their hands tied, traces of torture and gunshots to the back of the head. Robberies, attempts to obtain gold, valuables, carpets, washing machines. “Of course, it will be taken into account by the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies and international criminal courts.” CNN could not independently confirm the details of the men’s deaths. CNN has asked the Russian Defense Ministry for comment on allegations of civilian executions in the Kiev region and elsewhere in Ukraine. Evidence of apparent atrocities in Bucha came as Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had substantiated allegations of war crimes in the occupied territories of Kiev, Chernihiv and Kharkiv. The rights group said Sunday that the allegations included “repeated rape cases, two cases of summary execution, one by six men, another by a man and other cases of unlawful violence and threats against civilians between February 27 and March 14. 2022. “ In Bukha, Russian forces “rallied five men and briefly executed one of them” on March 4, HRW reported. A witness told the rights group that soldiers forced the men to kneel in the street and pulled their shirts over their heads before shooting one of the men in the back of the head. HRW also claims that on February 27, six men were arrested in the village of Staryi Bykiv in the Chernihiv region and later executed. In Malaya Rohan, a village in the Kharkiv region, a Russian soldier repeatedly raped a woman at a school where she was staying with her family on March 13, the victim told HRW. “He said he hit her and cut her face, neck and hair with a knife,” HRW wrote. The woman fled to Kharkov the next day, “where she was able to receive medical care and other services.” And in the village of Vorzel, 31 miles northwest of Kiev, Russian soldiers “threw smoke bombs into a basement and then shot a woman and a 14-year-old boy as they were leaving the basement where they had taken refuge.” said HRW. “The cases we have documented are tantamount to untold, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia. “Rape, murder and other acts of violence against people being held by Russian forces should be investigated as war crimes.” CNN has not independently verified the details of the HRW report and has asked the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment. European Union Council President Charles Michel promised new sanctions on Russia, saying he was “shocked by the haunted images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in the liberated area of ​​Kiev #BuchaMassacre”, in a post on Twitter. Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, also expressed surprise at the “news of atrocities committed by Russian forces”. “[The] The EU is assisting Ukraine in documenting war crimes. All cases must be claimed, specifically by @CIJ_ICJ [the International Court of Justice]”, Borrell wrote on Sunday. “The EU will continue to strongly support Ukraine.” CNN’s Tara John and Nathan Hodge reported from Lviv. Jonny Hallam reported from Atlanta. Amy Cassidy in London and James Frater reported from Brussels.