When Ukraine learned on April 2 that the whole Kyiv region had been liberated from Russian troops, there was barely any jubilation. This was mostly because of the gruesome evidence of war crimes left by the Russian occupying force in what were once affluent suburbs of Kyiv. The horrors discovered in Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel after a month-long invasion have the potential to shift the perception of the war – not only domestically, but also among the international community.
As a researcher of European security focused on eastern Europe and the role of the EU, I’ve identified three important ideas that are beginning to take shape in the wake of these revelations. The first is that this is Russia’s war. Vladimir Putin’s obsession over Ukraine, which has been well documented in the media over the past 20 years, and his angry tirade on the eve of the invasion made it easy to put all the blame solely on him. The label “Putin’s war” has been used both by the world press and in Ukraine itself.
But the evidence of the atrocities left by the fleeing Russian soldiers, makes this idea no longer tenable. After being pushed back from the Kyiv region, Russian soldiers are reported to have left mass graves and corpses of civilians with their hands tied behind their backs and bullets in their heads. There are also reports of naked female bodies that had been raped and partly burned, and mutilated bodies of children.
