| Ukrainians accuse Russia of atrocities in Kyiv region | Russia denies accusations, calls for UN meeting | Ukrainian, European officials call for war crimes probe | UN Chief calls for independent probe of civilian deaths in Ukrainian town
DM Monitoring
BUCHA: Global outrage spread on Monday at civilian killings in northern Ukraine, where a mass grave and tied bodies shot at close range were found in a town taken back from Russian troops, as Moscow shifted the focus of the fighting elsewhere.
The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, are likely to galvanise the United States and Europe into additional sanctions against Moscow, possibly including some restrictions on the billions of dollars in energy that Europe still imports from Russia.
The discoveries overshadowed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which were due to resume on Monday against a backdrop of artillery bombardments in Ukraine’s south and east, where Russia says it is now concentrating its operations after failing to take any major cities in the heart of the country.
“These are war crimes and will be recognised by the world as genocide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on a visit to Bucha. It had become harder, he said, for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia since the scale of alleged atrocities emerged.
Taras Shapravskyi, deputy mayor of the town some 40 km (25 miles) northwest of the capital Kyiv, said around 50 victims of extra-judicial killings by Russian troops had been found there after Kremlin forces withdrew late last week.
The Kremlin categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians, including in Bucha, where it said the graves and corpses had been staged by Ukraine to tarnish Russia.
Ukrainian authorities said they had found 421 civilian casualties near Kyiv by Sunday and were investigating possible war crimes in Bucha, a description also used by French President Emmanuel Macron and, in reference to Russia’s broader offensive, by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In the village of Motyzhyn, west of Kyiv, reporters saw three bodies in a forest grave. An adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry said the victims were the village’s leader and her family.
Zelenskiy has used the term genocide at various times during the war, decrying what he calls an intent to eliminate the nation by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who has questioned Ukraine’s legitimate, independent history from Russia.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday repeated his accusation that Putin was a war criminal and he called for a war crimes trial. Putin “is brutal. And what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it,” Biden told reporters.
“We have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to get all the detail so this can be an actual, have a war crimes trial.”
Washington’s United Nations ambassador said it would ask the U.N. General Assembly to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the move was warranted by “reports of mass graves and heinous butchery” in Bucha.
On the other side of the country in Mariupol, a southeastern port that has been under siege for weeks, images showed three bodies in civilian clothes lying in the street, one against a wall sprayed with blood. Outside a damaged apartment building, residents buried other dead in a shell crater.
“It is easier to dig here,” a resident said, saying four bodies were in the improvised grave. Nearby, the skeletal remains of residential tower blocks and other buildings surrounded by dust and debris dominated the skyline.
Ukraine says it has evacuated thousands of civilians in the past few days from the city, which is surrounded by areas held by Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region.
Several attempts by International Committee of the Red Cross teams to reach the besieged city in recent days have been unsuccessful, and a spokesman for the organisation said it was again unable to enter on Monday to evacuate civilians.
Ukraine was preparing for what its general staff said were about 60,000 Russian reservists called in to reinforce Moscow’s offensive in the east, after it bogged down elsewhere in the face of unexpectedly strong Ukrainian resistance.
A senior U.S. defence official said Russia has repositioned about two-thirds of its forces from around Kyiv, with many consolidating in close ally Belarus where they were expected to be refit, resupplied and be redeployed elsewhere in Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Ukraine said its forces had wrested back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its onslaught.
British military intelligence also said Russian troops, including contractors from the Wagner private military company, were moving to the east.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, said Russia was building up forces to break through Ukrainian defences. “I am urging residents to evacuate. The enemy will not stop, it will destroy everything in its path,” he said in comments carried on Ukrainian television.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Putin and his supporters would “feel the consequences” of events in Bucha. Western allies would agree further sanctions against Moscow in coming days, he said, though their timing and reach were not clear.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union must discuss banning Russian gas, though other officials urged caution around measures that could touch off a European energy crisis. More than half of Germany’s gas came from Russia last year.
France’s Macron suggested sanctions on oil and coal, saying they were very “clear clues pointing to war crimes” by Russian forces.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov urged international leaders not to rush to judgment, telling reporters that the facts did not support Ukraine’s version of events in Bucha.
Russia has previously denied targeting civilians and rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarising and “denazifying” Ukraine. Ukraine says it was invaded without provocation.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation into the killing of over 400 civilians in a Ukrainian city.
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” he said in a tersely worded statement issued on Sunday evening. It was also posted on his official Twitter account.
“It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.” Osnat Lubrani, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, shared the statement on Twitter.
“Ukrainians are enduring a living hell for more than a month, thousands of civilians have died,” she wrote. “This horrific war needs to stop.”
The UN said that it continues to press for an end to the war in Ukraine, which the Secretary-General has described as “unwinnable”.
