Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes and a “massacre” in Bucha after the bodies of unarmed Ukrainian civilians and mass graves were found on Sunday. Bodies of civilians – many with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture – were found on the streets after Ukrainian troops reclaimed the town 18 miles north-west of the capital, Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Bucha on Monday, wearing body armour and surrounded by military personnel. Speaking on national television, the Ukrainian leader said it had become harder for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia since Kyiv had become aware of the scale of alleged atrocities carried out by Russian troops.
Joe Biden called for Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes and said he would seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters on Monday, the US president noted the importance of gathering evidence of war crimes and was asked if genocide had been committed. He replied: “No, I think it’s a war crime.” EU leaders denounced “massacres”, “atrocities” and “possible genocide”. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc was urgently working on a new round of sanctions against Moscow.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was ready to send joint investigations teams to Ukraine to document the alleged Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity. She said she had spoken with Zelenskiy about the “dreadful murders” that were uncovered over the weekend.
The Kremlin said it categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in Bucha and said Ukrainian allegations on the matter should be treated with doubt. Russia’s foreign ministry said footage of dead civilians in the town had been “ordered” by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia. Russian state media dismissed the horrifying images and testimonies that emerged from Bucha as western-orchestrated “fakes” and “planned provocations”, claiming “Ukrainian Nazis” were responsible for the deaths of the civilians.
Russian forces are sending Ukrainian citizens to “filtration camps” before forcibly relocating them to Russia, according to the accounts of two women who said they were transported to Russian territory from the besieged city of Mariupol last month.
Buses meant for the rescue of civilians from Mariupol were not able to reach the besieged southern Ukrainian city, said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk. She accused Russian forces of blocking the International Committee of the Red Cross’s evacuation efforts and said 100 Turkish citizens were still trapped in Mariupol.
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The US will ask the United Nations general assembly to suspend Russia from the human rights council, said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, also called for Russia to be expelled from the UN’s human rights council.
