Moldova decreed national mourning for “crimes against humanity” committed in Ukraine

The Republic of Moldova declared this Monday a “day of national mourning” in memory of the victims of what the country's president, Maia Sandu, has described as “crimes against humanity” committed by Russia in Ukraine.

“We are horrified by the images that have appeared of the (Ukrainian) cities of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel with hundreds of civilians killed,” Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita wrote on her Facebook account on Monday.

“On April 4, President Maia Sandu declared a day of national mourning in memory of all the innocent lives that have been lost in the last 39 days in Ukraine,” added Gavrilita, who has been leading the pro-European and reformist government of Moldova since August last year.

The country's president, also pro-Western Maia Sandu, condemned Sunday the “crimes against humanity” allegedly committed by Russian troops in the cities of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, around Kiev.

For their part, the Kiev authorities denounced the massacre committed by the Russian army in Bucha in the north of the country, which was besieged and bombed for weeks and in which, when recovered by the country's troops, hundreds of bodies were found in its streets, most of them civilians.

According to the daily Pravda, which cites sources from the funeral services of this Kiev suburb, “in total between 330 and 340 bodies have been found in Bucha, but there are more,” he said.

“We collected 15 bodies from Yablunska Street whose hands had been tied and which had been shot in the head. Today [April 3] we found 30 bodies,” the sources described.

According to Serhiy, another employee of the Bucha funeral service who is also quoted by the local newspaper, the workers are overwhelmed and unable to continue with these tasks of recovering bodies.

” Tomorrow we have to visit at least 20 more addresses. Many people are buried in yards and plots. We can't tell the exact number. We don't have complete lists yet. We have already buried around 350 people,” he insisted.

With just 2.6 million inhabitants and a virtually symbolic army, Moldova shares a border with Ukraine and fears that it will be the target of Russian aggression.

Moldova gained its independence in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Russian troops established in the region of the country known until today as Transnistria took up arms against the authorities of the newly independent state and declared a de facto republic there.

Although it is not internationally recognized as a country, Transnistria still exists to this day as a separate entity from Moldova.

It is estimated that there are about 2,000 Russian soldiers permanently deployed in Transnistria, which makes Moldovan leaders normally bet on prudence in their public demonstrations on Russia.

The capital of this rebel “republic” under Moscow is barely a hundred kilometers from the Ukrainian port of Odessa, one of the targets of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, so there are fears that the Kremlin will activate its troops in Transnistria to conquer the city.

(with information from EFE)

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