Russia Faces Global Outrage of Bodies on the Streets of Ukraine –

BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) – Moscow on Monday was accused of global insults and war crimes after Russia’s evacuation outside Kiev exposed streets, buildings and courtyards. Scattered among corpses They appear to be civilians, many of whom have been killed at close range.

Frightening images of corpses left open or hurriedly buried have led to harsher sanctions against the Kremlin, particularly the cessation of fuel imports from Russia. Germany and France responded by expelling dozens of Russian diplomats, suggesting they were spies, while US President Joe Biden said Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be tried for the crimes. in the war.

“This person is cruel and what is happening in Bucha is scandalous,” said Biden, referring to the city northwest of the capital, which has been the scene of some horrors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left the capital, Kiev, on his first trip, which began almost six weeks after the war began, to see for himself what he called “genocide” and “war crimes” in Bucha.

In his nightly video speech, Zelensky promised that Ukraine would cooperate with the European Union and the International Criminal Court to identify Russian fighters involved in any atrocities.

“The time will come when all Russians will know the whole truth about who killed their fellow citizens, who gave orders, who turned a blind eye to the killings,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the scenes outside Kiev as a “direct anti-Russian provocation on stage”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the images showed “signs of video forgery and various fakes”.

Russia has also denied earlier allegations of atrocities, including Ukraine’s inventions.

Ukrainian officials said the bodies of at least 410 civilians were found in the city near Kiev, which was recovered by Russian forces in recent days.

The Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office called one of the rooms found in Bucha a “torture chamber”. The bodies of five men were found handcuffed in the basement of a children’s sanatorium, where civilians were tortured and killed, the statement said.

Associated Press reporters found dozens of bodies in Bucha, including at least 13 in and around the building, which locals say were used by Russian troops as a base. Three more bodies were found on the stairs and a group of six were burnt together.

Many of the victims the AP saw appear to have been shot at close range. Some were shot in the back. At least two had their hands tied. A sack of discarded food was lying next to one of the victims.

The dead, witnessed by news agency reporters, also contained corpses wrapped in black plastic piled at one end of a mass grave in the courtyard of the Bucha church. Many of these victims were shot in vehicles or killed by explosions as they tried to flee the city. Full of morgues and impossible to reach the cemetery, the cemetery is the only place where the dead hide, said Father Andrew Galvin.

Tanya Nedashkivska said she buried her husband in the garden in front of their apartment building after being caught by Russian troops. His body was one of those left on the stairs.

“Please, please, do something!” he says. “I am speaking, a Ukrainian woman, a Ukrainian woman, mother of two children and a grandchild.” For all wives and mothers, make peace on earth so that no one will grieve. “

Another Bucha resident, Volodymyr Pilhutsky, said his neighbor Pavlo Vlasenko was taken by Russian soldiers because of the style of military pants he was wearing, which Vlasenko said belonged to the guard’s son. , looks suspicious. When Vlasenko’s body was found, there were traces of burns from the gun, his neighbor said.

“I approached him and I saw his body was burned,” Pilhutsky said. “They just didn’t shoot him.”

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, told a press conference on Monday that “at a time when Bucha is under Russian control”, no local population has undergone violence ”.

However, high-resolution satellite images from commercial vendor Maxar Technologies showed that many of the corpses were exposed within weeks, while Russian forces were in Bucha. The New York Times first reported satellite images where the dead were seen.

In other news, more than 1,500 civilians were evacuated from the besieged and destroyed port city south of Mariupol on Monday, using the small number of private vehicles available to get out, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said.

But during the fighting, a bus convoy accompanied by the Red Cross, which had been stationary for several days to replenish supplies and evacuate residents, had not yet entered the city, Vereshchuk said.

European leaders and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights joined Ukrainians in condemning the bloodshed that erupted after the departure of Russian troops from the area around Kiev.

At the same time, many warn that the full extent of the horror has not yet been revealed.

“Without exaggeration, but with great sadness I can tell you that the situation in Mariupol is much worse than we have seen in other towns, cities and villages near Bucha and Kiev,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. .

Zelensky is due to speak Tuesday at a scheduled United Nations Security Council meeting. UK Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward said the session would inevitably focus on the killing of large numbers of civilians in Ukraine.

Western and Ukrainian leaders have previously accused Russia of war crimes, and an International Criminal Court prosecutor has already launched an investigation. But recent reports have exaggerated the sentence.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Bucha’s photos show “the incredible brutality of Russia’s leadership and those who follow its propaganda.” And French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “clear evidence of war crimes” in Bucha calling for new punitive measures.

“I am in favor of a new round of sanctions, especially on coal and petrol. “We have to act,” he told Radio France-Inter.

Although united in anger, the allies in Europe seem divided on how to respond. While Poland has called on Europe to quickly move away from Russia’s energy, Germany said it will follow a gradual approach to phase out coal and oil imports over the next few months.

The United States and its allies have tried to punish Russia by imposing global sanctions for aggression, but fear further damage to the global economy, which is still recovering from a pandemic. Europe has a special union because it gets 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Russia a “totalitarian-fascist state” under Putin and called for strong action “that will eventually crush Putin’s war machine”. “Do you intend to negotiate with Hitler, Stalin, Paul Pot?” Morawiecki asked Macron.

Russia has withdrawn its forces from the capital in recent days after thwarting an attempt to quickly seize Kiev.

In return, it deployed troops and mercenaries in the east of the country to strengthen control over the Donbas, a mostly Russian -speaking industrial region that includes Mariupol, where the fiercest fighting and hardship of the war took place.

About two-thirds of Russian troops around Kiev have left and are in Belarus, or going there, are likely to receive more supplies and reinforcements, said a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke to condition not to identify because of the information provided. .

It appears that Russian forces are deploying artillery and troops to try to seize the city of Izumi, located on the main road to the Donbas, an official said.

A bomb blast near the southern city of Mykolaiv has killed at least 11 people, regional governor Vitaly Kim said in a video message on social media. Kim said nine victims died at a public transport stop in the city center.

Zelensky called for more weapons as Russia prepares for a new offensive.

“If we had what we needed-all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile and anti-ship weapons-we would have saved thousands of lives,” he said.

Reported by Kena from Motizhin, Ukraine. Jurassic Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Lolita Baldor in Washington and Associated Press reporters around the world.