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At least twenty bodies were discovered in the streets of Boutcha, a city recaptured a few days ago from the Russians by Ukrainian troops. kyiv accuses Moscow of “deliberate massacre” and “genocide”.
Many bodies discovered in Boutcha. Ukrainian troops uncovered grisly scenes as they recaptured the town of Boutcha, northwest of kyiv. Occupied by the Russians for almost a month, this once peaceful commune was completely devastated by the fighting, like its neighbor Irpin, and has only been accessible for a few days. On Saturday, an AFP journalist saw the bodies of at least twenty men there, scattered over several hundred meters in the streets. All were wearing civilian clothes, and one of them with his hands tied. It was not yet possible to determine the cause of their death, but one of them had a large head wound. “All these people were shot, Boutcha mayor Anatoly Fedorouk told AFP. [Les Russes] killed them with a bullet in the neck. »
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At least 57 bodies in a mass grave. In this city, 57 bodies were found in a mass grave, Serhii Kaplytchny, the local relief chief, announced on Sunday, showing this place to AFP. A dozen remains were visible. “In Boutcha, we have already buried 280 people in mass graves,” the mayor of the city, Anatoly Fedoruk, told AFP the day before, because it was impossible to bury the deceased in the cemeteries of the municipality, within firing range of Russian soldiers. But the chaplain of the Ukrainian army, met in Boutcha, estimated with franceinfo the death toll might be much higher. “You can’t even imagine how many civilians died, he lamented. The bodies are in the streets. We can’t even count them anymore. »
[THREAD] The gravedigger of # bushing northwest of #Kiev, a territory abandoned by Russian troops, is called Anatoliy Kushnirchuk. He recounts the horror: “You can’t even imagine how many civilians died. The bodies are in the streets…
— Thibault Lefevre (@thibaultlefevre) April 2, 2022
Signs of abuses in areas where the Russians have withdrawn. The last days, Moscow troops withdrew from several localities around kyiv and Chernihiv, to better redeploy in the east and south. But they leave behind “a total disaster and many dangers”, denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Facebook. He accuses them of “mine the territories they leave, houses, ammunition and even corpses”. In a statement released on Sunday, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch said it had documented Russian abuses once morest civilians, which amounted to “war crimes”, around Chernihiv, Karkiv and kyiv. She cites the case of a woman repeatedly raped and beaten by a Russian soldier, the summary executions of seven men, cases of violence and “threats once morest civilians” as well as looting.
Ukraine denounces a “deliberate massacre” in Boutcha. “The Boutcha massacre was deliberate. The Russians want to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We have to stop them and put them out. I demand devastating new G7 sanctions NOW,” blasted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba on Twitter. For his part, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, compared Boutcha on Twitter to the Srebrenica massacre, committed in 1995 in Bosnia, and accused the West of not doing enough. “Are you going to try to turn away once more? he launched on Twitter. To organize another summit to worry and shake your head? “. Sunday, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of carrying out a “genocide” once morest the Ukrainian people, in an interview with the American channel CBS.
Towards new sanctions? Western leaders, precisely, condemned these images one by one. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has denounced “revolting acts” ; from “atrocities” for the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck lamented on Sunday a “terrible war crime” perpetrated in Boutcha. The latter two have called for new European sanctions once morest Vladimir Putin and his regime. For his part, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, denounced acts « horrible » and “absolutely unacceptable” once morest civilians. For the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, these images have the effect of a “punched in the stomach”, “it has to stop”.
Russia “will have to answer for these crimes”, accuses Macron. “I have read reports of massive abuses committed by Russian forces in Ukrainian towns that they occupied in recent weeks, in particular in the locality of Boutcha. I condemn in the strongest terms such constitutive acts, if confirmed, of war crimes”, reacted on Sunday the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in a press release sent to AFP. “The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes”, President Emmanuel Macron protested on Twitter, evoking “unsustainable images”.
A United Nations mission in progress. These suspicions of war crimes come at a time when the United Nations is attempting a humanitarian mission in Moscow. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths is in the Russian capital on Sunday before heading to Kyiv with a mandate to seek a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine. Until now, Russia had always refused a visit by a UN diplomat whose main subject was Ukraine.
