Neu published satellite images of the company Maxar Technologies confirm that some of the in the Kiev suburb Bucha found corpses were lying there before the Russian troops left. The “high-resolution” images “confirm recent videos and photos on social media showing bodies that have been lying on the street for weeks,” a spokesman for the US satellite imagery company said.
Photos of a street in Bucha taken in mid-March show several bodies of suspected civilians lying on or near the road. Several bodies were found here by Ukrainian officials after Russian troops withdrew in early April.
AFP photographers saw around 20 bodies in civilian clothes during a visit last Saturday – some with their hands tied.
The Russian Ministry of Defense had described the images as “fake”. Accordingly, the bodies were not there when the Russian forces withdrew on March 30. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebensia described the atrocities against residents of the Ukrainian city of Bucha as a “staged provocation”. This is a “disgusting provocation by the regime in Kyiv,” said Nebensia on Monday at a press conference in New York.
Satellite image from Maxar Technologies, which predates the Russian withdrawal from Bucha. If you look closely, you can see shadows on the vertical street…en whose position corresponds exactly to that of the corpses that could be seen on video recordings
Source: AFP/-
However, Maxar satellite images from March 19 and 21 show that there were already several bodies on Jablonska Street in Bucha by that time. the “New York Times” He also compared these images to various footage taken by Ukrainian officials and international media and confirmed that some of the bodies had been in the position shown weeks before the Russian withdrawal.
According to the US Department of Defense, the Russian armed forces are responsible for the atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. “I think it’s quite obvious — not just to us, but to the world — that Russian forces are responsible for the atrocities in Bucha,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday. The US could not say exactly which units were deployed there, but there is no doubt that the atrocities took place and were an act of Russian forces, Kirby said.
Selenskyj compares Bucha with Guernica and demands war crimes trial
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared Bucha to Guernica in a video speech to the Spanish parliament on Tuesday. “We are in April 2022, but it seems like April 1937 when the whole world found out about the attack on their city of Guernica,” Zelenskyy said. The small Basque town was largely destroyed in an air raid by the German Condor Legion during the civil war, and up to 2,000 people died.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his video address to the UN Security Council in New York
Source: dpa / John Minchillo
Two Ukrainian soldiers walk on a street in the city of Bucha, which is littered with wrecked Russian military vehicles
Source: dpa/Rodrigo Abd
In another video address to the United Nations Security Council, Zelenskyy called for a war crimes trial against the Russian military. Russian invading forces have committed the worst war crimes in Ukraine since World War II, he said. Zelenskyi, who also showed the Security Council a video with photos of atrocities lined up next to each other and described the crimes in detail, demanded that Russia be held accountable. He accused the body of failure and called for its reform.
Selenskyj reported in a the night before video message from his visit to Irpin and Bucha. “The cities are simply destroyed.” The bodies on the streets have therefore already been recovered from most streets. But there are still dead people in the backyards and houses. Selenskyj feared that Russian troops were now trying to “cover up the traces of their crimes” – unlike in Bucha.
Situation in Borodyanka could be even worse
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, the situation in Borodyanka could be even worse than in Bucha. The small town was also held by Russian troops until recently. “The worst situation in terms of victims” is there, she said on Ukrainian television on Monday. “I think we will talk about Borodyanka separately.”
According to its own statements, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has already registered more than 7,000 reports of Russian war crimes in the region around Kyiv. Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko called on the residents of the suburbs who had fled to wait “at least another week” before returning. First explosive devices should be eliminated; there is a curfew in several districts.
A resident of Bucha mourns the death of her husband
Source: dpa/Rodrigo Abd
Meanwhile, the bodies of a mayor and four other civilians with their hands tied have been found in a town west of Kyiv, according to Ukrainian sources. Police showed reporters from the AFP news agency on Monday four bodies half buried in a forest near the mayor’s house in Motyshyn, about 30 kilometers from Bucha. A fifth body was found in a well in the garden.
The mayor Olga Sucheko, her husband and their son were abducted by Russian soldiers on March 24, the police said. According to local residents, they had refused to cooperate with the Russian troops. The other two bodies are men who are not related to the family of the 50-year-old mayor.
According to the UN, 1,480 civilians have died in Ukraine since Russian troops invaded. In addition, 2,195 civilians were injured, said the UN representative for political affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, before the UN Security Council. She referred to figures from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva (OHCHR). However, it is only about the documented number of victims, the number of unreported cases is probably very high, said DiCarlo. “OHCHR believes the actual numbers are significantly higher.”
Kyiv fears Russian offensive in Donbass
Meanwhile, Kyiv is warning of a major offensive by Russia in the south and east of the country. On one of the most important front lines in eastern Ukraine Donbassseparating the Ukrainian army from Russian forces, pressure is mounting in anticipation of an imminent Russian attack, reporters from the AFP news agency reported.
The Ukrainian soldiers were in their defensive positions in and around the village Krasnopillia stationed. Artillery detonations could be heard periodically nearby. “We know that the Russians are getting stronger and preparing to attack,” an officer told AFP, noting in particular the increased flights of Russian helicopters over the front line. These usually announced a major attack.
Source: Infographic WORLD
“In the coming weeks we are expecting another Russian advance in eastern and southern Ukraine,” said NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday. This should try to “take the entire Donbass and create a land corridor to the occupied Crimea”.
The embattled port city Mariupol according to UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths, is currently a “centre of hell”. “For more than five weeks, the people of Mariupol have been fighting,” Griffiths said. “It is well documented that Mariupol is a center of hell.” It is not much different in other Ukrainian cities. On Tuesday, Russia again demanded the surrender of Ukrainian troops.
Source: WELT/Isabell Bischoff infographic
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday morning that around 600 Russian soldiers were currently being held captive in Ukraine. This was reported by the “Ukrainska Pravda”.
They are looking for ways to reach Ukrainians in Russian POWs through the Red Cross and want to persuade Russia to release them. In the areas of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, some people have been in Russian captivity since 2014.