It was not clear who the people were or under what circumstances they were killed. One was most likely a child, said Andrii Nebytov, chief of police in the Kiev region. One suffered a gunshot wound to the head. The pile of corpses seen by Associated Press reporters stood just outside a residential street, near a colorful, empty playground, and was visible to passersby as they went cautiously out into the countryside to gather help. It was just the latest creepy scene to emerge from Bucharest as world leaders push Russia to account. “It’s horrible,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastirsky said at the scene, which was attended by other journalists. The minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin must “go to hell.” The AP has seen dozens of bodies around Bucha, where Russian forces withdrew last week. The images of some of the corpses with their hands tied have terrified the world. Many of the victims seen by the AP appeared to have been shot at close range, some in the head. At least two had their hands tied. High-resolution satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed that many of the bodies had been in the countryside for weeks, during the period when Russian forces were in the city. Ukrainian officials say the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in cities around Kyiv that have been recaptured by Russian forces in recent days. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine described a room discovered in Bukha as a “torture chamber”. The horrific images of beaten or burnt corpses left in the countryside or hurriedly buried have led to calls for tougher sanctions against the Kremlin, in particular a halt to fuel imports from Russia. Germany and France responded by expelling dozens of Russian diplomats, implying they were spies, and US President Joe Biden said Putin should be tried for war crimes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left Kyiv this week for his first trip since the start of the war nearly six weeks ago to see for himself what he called the “genocide” and “war crimes” in Bukhara. . The attorney general of the International Criminal Court in The Hague launched an investigation a month ago into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
