War crimes investigators have uncovered compelling evidence Russian troops committed extrajudicial executions and torture of civilians as they failed to close in on Kyiv.
Amnesty International said innocent civilians also suffered from “reckless shootings and torture” from rampaging Russian troops during attacks throughout February and March.
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response officer, said: "These are not isolated incidents. These are very much part of a pattern wherever Russian forces were in control of a town or a village.”
She was speaking at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as Amnesty launched a major new report into Russia ’s orgy of violence as its troops attacked Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities are investigating over 9,000 potential war crimes by Russian troops and the International Criminal Court is also looking into alleged war crimes.
Amnesty’s report is the latest to document alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces when they occupied an area northwest of Kyiv, including the town of Bucha, where more than 400 civilians were killed.
Armour piercing rounds or bullets, with black tips and a 9x39mm calibre were fired at civilians and these are only used by some elite Russian airborne units more commonly known as paratroopers.
Moscow withdrew its troops in early April as the invasion faltered, driven back by a ferocious Ukrainian counter-attack.
The report concludes Russian troops committed a "host of apparent war crimes" in Bucha, including "numerous unlawful killings.”
Evidence has been uncovered leading to the identities of individual Russian soldiers and military units present in Bucha, amongst them the troops of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, Rovera said she collected in Bucha armour-piercing bullets and shell casings produced at a plant in Tula, south of Moscow, for rifles used only by elite Russian airborne units.
It adds enormous weight to earlier revelations this week linking war crimes to Russian airborne troops.
She added: “We also found and were able to view some military documents that indicate the presence of these special units in these places where these crimes were committed.”
Amnesty has documented 22 cases of unlawful killing by Russian forces - "most of which were apparent extrajudicial executions" - in Bucha and nearby areas.
The devastating report was revealed amid fears for more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops and hundreds of civilians holed up in a steel works in Mariupol which Russian forces are trying to overrun.
