3 yıl önce

Witnesses traumatised as Ukraine claims 410 bodies found near Kiev

Ukraine accuses Russian army of having committed a "massacre" in Bucha, a town northwest of Kiev recently retaken by Ukrainian troops, where the bodies of civilians were found in the streets. Moscow denies allegations.

AFP

A suspected mass grave is seen behind a church in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kiev on April 3, 2022.

Ukraine has found 410 bodies in towns near Kiev as part of an investigation into possible "war crimes" by Russia but some witnesses are so traumatised by their ordeal that they are unable to speak, the country's top prosecutor said.

Russia has rejected the allegations and said on Sunday Kiev is trying to disrupt peace talks with "provocation"

After Russia withdrew from some areas around Kiev, the mayor in Bucha, a liberated town 37 km northwest of the capital, said that 300 residents had been killed by Russian forces while Chechen fighters controlled the area.

Russia has denied the allegations that its troops killed civilians in Bucha. Moscow says no residents suffered from any violence from Russian forces and accused Kiev of staging what it cast as a provocation confected for Western media.

Ukrainian prosecutors were only able to enter the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel for the first time on Sunday and they need more time to work out the extent of the crimes, Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova said.

"We need to work with witnesses," Venedyktova said.

"People today are so stressed that they are physically unable to speak."

She said 140 of the bodies had been examined so far but that she would be asking the health ministry to provide as many forensic experts as possible to a field hospital in Kiev region.

Missing residents

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "Hundreds of people were killed. Tortured, executed civilians. Corpses on the streets. Mined areas. Even the bodies of the dead were mined."

Zelenskyy said it was clear the West would impose a new set of sanctions on Russia, but he said that was not enough.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said it was clear hundreds of civilians had been killed, but that he did not want to say exactly how many there were, as efforts were still under way to clear mines in the area.

"Many local residents are considered missing. We cannot give an exact figure, but there are a lot of people," he said.

Russia has denied the allegations, calling them "provocations".

"Russian Federation requested a meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with the provocation of the Ukrainian military and radicals in the city of Bucha," Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

"The idea behind the next crime of the 'Kiev's regime' is the disruption of peace negotiations and the escalation of violence."

45-foot-long trench at grave site

Satellite images of Bucha show an approximately 45-foot-long trench dug into the grounds of a church where a mass grave has been identified, a private US company said on Sunday.

The images, captured on March 31, followed previous imagery from March 10 that show signs of excavation on the grounds of the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints, Maxar Technologies said.

Reuters news agency could not immediately verify the images.

SOURCE: Reuters