The head of the Bucha prosecutors team promised to catch “all those who committed bloody crimes against peaceful civilians” in the city of Bucha, while more bodies were exhumed at the site of a mass grave on Wednesday.
“During the occupation of Bucha by Russian forces, people were shot just because they spoke Ukrainian, volunteered or supported our armed forces. Russian forces killed peaceful civilians,” the head of the Bucha prosecutors team, Ruslan Kravchenko, told reporters at the site where the most bodies were recovered.
The discovery of so many civilians killed in Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian forces from the city has sparked worldwide protest. Kiev is investigating them as war crimes, but Moscow has denied responsibility and accused Ukraine of trying to discredit it.
Ukrainian authorities claim that hundreds of civilians have been found dead since the Russians' withdrawal. The deputy mayor of Bucha has said that 360 civilians died during the Russian occupation. Reuters could not independently verify those figures.
Russia, which has repeatedly denied attacking civilians since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, has called allegations that Russian forces executed civilians in Bucha while occupying the city as a “monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army. Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian and Western claims that Russia had committed war crimes and called them false.
Ever since Russian troops withdrew from cities and villages around the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Ukrainian troops have been showing journalists bodies of what they say are civilians killed by Russian forces, houses destroyed and cars burned.
Reuters saw dead bodies in the city of Bucha, but could not independently verify who was responsible for the murders. Ukraine says Russia is guilty of genocide and US President Joe Biden also used the term.
Biden's accusation, who had already called Putin a “war criminal”, comes as Moscow is preparing a powerful offensive in eastern Ukraine that, according to Washington, could involve the use of chemical weapons.
“Yes, I called it a genocide,” Biden told the press hours after a speech in Iowa in which he first used this word. “Let the lawyers decide whether it qualifies as such or not, but it seems to me that it does,” he added.
“True words of a true leader” because “calling things by their names is essential to opposing evil,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky reacted via Twitter
For his part, Vladimir described Tuesday as “false information” the atrocities denounced by Ukrainians and Western countries in Bucha, which the Kremlin had previously called “montage”.
(With information from Reuters and AFP)
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