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Zelensky calls Russian forces ‘butchers’ after civilian mass graves found around Kyiv
![Zelensky calls Russian forces ‘butchers’ after civilian mass graves found around Kyiv]()
Ukrainian prosecutors said they found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv, and 140 bodies had been examined. Zelensky calls Russian forces ‘butchers’ after civilian mass graves found around Kyiv
Russia faced a fresh wave of condemnation on Monday after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine. Some Western leaders called for further sanctions in response to the alleged atrocities, even as Moscow continued to press its offensive in the country’s east.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes and a “massacre” in Bucha, a town just 30km northwest of the capital Kyiv, 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.
Ukrainian prosecutors said they found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv, and 140 bodies had been examined. Satellite images from Bucha appear to show an approximately 45ft-long trench dug into the grounds of a church where a mass grave has been identified.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russian forces as “murderers”, “torturers” and “rapists” after the killings came to light, describing the Kremlin-ordered attack on his country as amounting to genocide . “How did they also become butchers? ... They killed deliberately and with pleasure,” he said in a national address late on Sunday. He vowed to investigate and prosecute all Russian “crimes” in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and said Ukrainian allegations on the matter should be treated with doubt. Russia’s foreign ministry said that footage of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha had been “ordered” by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia.
Germany’s defense minister suggested the European Union discuss a ban on Russian gas imports, but more senior officials indicated an immediate boycott was not possible — a sign that leaders could struggle in the short-term to ramp up already severe sanctions on Russia.
Ukrainian officials said bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around the capital, Kyiv, that were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days. In Bucha, northwest of the capital, Associated Press journalists saw 21 bodies. One group of nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base. They appeared to have been shot at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs.
