The gruesome images of battered or burnt bodies left in the countryside or hastily buried have led to calls for tougher sanctions against the Kremlin, especially to cut off fuel imports from Russia. Germany and France have reacted by ousting dozens of Russian diplomats, suggesting they were spies, and US President Joe Biden has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be tried for war crimes. “This guy is brutal and what is happening in Bucha is outrageous,” Biden said, referring to the city northwest of the capital which was the scene of some of the terror. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has left the capital, Kyiv, 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 Bucha. . In his overnight video speech, Zelensky promised that Ukraine would work with the European Union and the International Criminal Court to identify Russian fighters involved in any atrocities. “The time will come when every Russian will learn the whole truth about which of his fellow citizens he killed, who gave orders, who turned a blind eye to the killings,” he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the scenes outside Kyiv as a “staged anti-Russian provocation.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said the images contained “video forgery marks and various forgeries”. Similarly, Russia has denied previous allegations of atrocities by Ukraine. 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”. In a statement, it said the bodies of five men with their hands tied were found in the basement of a children’s sanatorium where civilians were tortured and killed. Associated Press reporters saw dozens of bodies in Bucha, including at least 13 inside and around a building that locals said were used by Russian troops as a base. Three more bodies were found on a ladder and a group of six were cremated. Many of the victims seen by the AP appeared to have been shot at close range. Some were shot in the head. At least two had their hands tied. A bag of spilled groceries was near a victim. The dead, who were watched by news agency reporters, also included corpses wrapped in black plastic, stacked at one end of a mass grave in a Bucha church. Many of these victims had been shot in cars or killed in explosions as they tried to flee the city. With the morgue full and the cemetery inaccessible, the churchyard was the only place to keep the dead, Father Andrii Galavin said. Tanya Nedashkivs’ka said she buried her husband in a garden outside their apartment building after she was arrested by Russian troops. His body was one of those left stacked on a ladder. “Please, I beg you, do something!” he said. “I speak, a Ukrainian, a Ukrainian, a mother of two children and a grandson. “For all wives and mothers, make peace on earth so that no one will ever mourn again.” Another Bucha resident, Volodymyr Pilhutskyi, said Pavlo Vlasenko’s neighbor was picked up by Russian soldiers because the military-style trousers he was wearing and the uniforms Vlasenko said belonged to his son’s were looking suspicious. When Vlasenko’s body was later found, he had signs of flame burns, his neighbor said. “I came closer and saw that his body had burned,” Pilhutskyi said. “They did not just shoot him.” Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told a news conference on Monday that “not a single local has suffered any violence during the time that Bucha has been under Russian control.” However, high-resolution satellite images from commercial provider Maxar Technologies showed that many of the bodies had been in the countryside for weeks, during the period when Russian forces were in Bucha. The New York Times first reported on satellite images showing the dead. In other news, more than 1,500 civilians were evacuated Monday from the besieged and devastated port city of Mariupol in the south, using the reduced number of private vehicles available to leave, Ukrainian Vice President Iryna Vereshchuk said. However, in the midst of the clashes, a Red Cross escort bus, which was canceled for days in an attempt to deliver supplies and evacuate residents, was unable to re-enter the city, Verestsuk said. European leaders and the head of the United Nations on human rights have joined the Ukrainians in condemning the bloodshed revealed after Russian troops withdrew from the area around Kyiv. At the same time, many warned that the full extent of the horror had not yet been seen. “I can tell you without exaggeration, but with great sadness that the situation in Mariupol is much worse than what we have seen in Bucha and other cities, towns and villages near Kyiv,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. . Zelensky was scheduled to speak at a scheduled meeting of the UN Security Adviser on Tuesday. The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said the summit was certain to focus on the killing of large numbers of civilians in Ukraine. Western and Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of war crimes in the past, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has already launched an investigation. But recent reports have strengthened the condemnation. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the images from Bucha exposed the “unbelievable barbarity of the Russian leadership and those who follow its propaganda.” And French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “clear evidence of war crimes” in Boucha calling for new sanctions. “I am in favor of a new round of sanctions, especially on coal and petrol. “We have to act,” he told France-Inter radio. Although united in rage, the European allies seemed divided over how to respond. While Poland has urged Europe to wean itself quickly from Russian energy, Germany has said it will pursue a phased approach to phasing out coal and oil imports in the coming months. The United States and its allies have tried to punish Russia for the invasion by imposing sweeping sanctions, but fear further damage to the global economy, which is still recovering from the pandemic. Europe is in a special bond, as it supplies 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia. The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, described Russia under Putin as a “totalitarian-fascist state” and called for strong action “that will finally break Putin’s war machine.” “Would you negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot?” Morawiecki asked Macron. Russia has withdrawn many of its forces from the capital in recent days after it was thwarted in its attempt to seize Kyiv quickly. Instead, it has deployed troops and mercenaries in the east of the country in an intensifying effort to seize control of Donbas, a predominantly Russian-speaking industrial area including Mariupol, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting and worst of war. About two-thirds of Russian troops around Kyiv have fled and are either in Belarus or heading there, likely to receive more supplies and reinforcements, said a senior US defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. evaluation of information. Russian forces also appear to be deploying artillery and troops to try to seize the town of Izyum, which is on a key route to Donbas, the official said. On Monday, a Russian bombing killed 11 people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Regional Governor Vitaly Kim said in a video message on social media. Kim said nine of the victims died at a public transit stop in the city center. Zelensky called for more weapons as Russia prepares for a new offensive. “If we had already got what we needed – all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile and anti-ship weapons – we could have saved thousands of people,” he said.
Qena reported from Motyzhyn, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine. Lolita Baldor in Washington and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed.
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