Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said it will be a “challenge” to hold peace negotiations with Russia, following the discovery of a mass grave in a town occupied by Russian troops until last week.
Dead civilians, some of whom had their hands tied behind their backs, were found in Bucha, a town to the north-west of Kyiv, soon after Moscow’s troops withdrew from the area.
In his daily address to the Ukrainian nation, Mr Zelensky, who travelled to the site of the killings on Monday, said he found the thought of negotiations “challenging”, before adding that they are the only way to end the war. He also indicated he might not hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelensky is set to raise the issue of possible war crimes when he addresses the United Nations’ Security Council later on Tuesday.
The discoveries in Bucha have prompted international outrage with US President calling Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”, and Poland likening the Russian leader to Adolf Hitler.
At least 300 civilians were murdered in the Kyiv suburb and the death toll is likely to rise further, Mr Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president also warned that similar atrocities, denied as “fake news” by the Kremlin, had been committed elsewhere in the country.
“There is already information that the number of victims of the occupiers may be even higher in Borodyanka and some other liberated cities,” he said.
“In many villages of the liberated districts of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the occupiers did things that the locals had not seen even during the Nazi occupation 80 years ago. The occupiers will definitely bear responsibility for this.”
Mr Zelensky also warned the Kremlin that its leaders would end their lives “behind bars”, saying the crimes committed by Russia were being closely documented.
Sergey Nikiforov, the president’s spokesperson, condemned the “pure brutality” of the Russians. “We found people with their hands and with their legs tied up and with bullet holes at the back of their heads,” he said. “They were civilians and they were executed.”
Ukraine’s prosecutor general suggested a “torture chamber” was uncovered in a children’s sanatorium in Bucha, where five men are alleged to have been killed.
Meanwhile, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, accused Russia of committing “genocide” after he visited some of the capital’s liberated satellite towns, including Bucha.
The former professional boxer urged the EU to cut all commercial ties with Russia, saying its oil payments to the Kremlin constituted “blood money”.
Elsewhere, the European Commission is set to propose a new raft of sanctions against Russia, including an embargo on its coal and rubber experts, according to an EU source.
Russia continues to deny that its troops were involved in the murder of civilians in places such as Bucha. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is a close ally of Mr Putin, claimed the accusations from Ukraine and the west were groundless.
"These are fakes that matured in the cynical imagination of Ukrainian propaganda,” he said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov doubled down on Russia’s official position calling the allegations a “monstrous forgery”.
“We once again urge the international community - detach yourself from such emotional perceptions and think with your head. Compare the facts and understand what a monstrous forgery we are dealing with,” he said.
Russia claims its troops had left Bucha long before the discovery of the bodies. The defence ministry said the bodies were placed on the streets after “all Russian units withdrew completely from Bucha”, which Moscow claims was around 30 March.
However, satellite images taken by the US company Maxar Technologies undercut the Kremlin’s narrative by showing bodies on one of the town’s roads on 18 and 19 March.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Red Cross team has been released after being detained on their way to Mariupol, where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped without adequate water and food.
“After negotiations, they were released during the night and sent to Zaporizhzhia,” Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
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