'Tied Up, Shot From Close Range,' Hundreds Of Ukrainian Civilians Mascaraed By Russian Troops

Ukrainian authorities accused the withdrawing Russian forces on Sunday of committing war crimes as pictures and videos emerged from the city of Bucha on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were found in Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces.

Reuters

Killed at close range

According to the Associated Press, its journalists saw the bodies of at least 21 people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital. 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 killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs, one was shot in the head, and another's legs were bound.

AFP

Horror unfolded in front of them

One resident, who refused to give his name out of fear for his safety, said that Russian troops went building to building and took people out of the basements where they were hiding, checking their phones for any evidence of anti-Russian activity before taking them away or shooting them.

Hanna Herega, another resident, said Russian troops started shooting at a neighbor who had gone out to gather wood for heating.

¡°They hit him a bit above the heel, crushing the bone, and he fell down,¡± Herega said.

¡°Then they shot off his left leg completely, with the boot. Then they shot him all over.¡±

AFP

The AP also saw two bodies, that of a man and a woman, wrapped in plastic that residents said they had covered and placed in a shaft until a proper funeral could be arranged.

¡°He put his hands up, and they shot him,¡± said the resident who refused to be identified.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described bodies lying in suburban streets as a ¡°scene from a horror movie.¡± He claimed some of the women had been raped before being killed and the Russians then burned the bodies.

Mass graves

On Sunday Mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk said 280 people were buried in mass graves because they could not have be buried in cemeteries that were within firing range.

AFP

"We found mass graves. We found people with their hands and legs tied up... with bullet holes in the back of their heads," presidential spokesman Sergiy Nikiforov told the BBC Sunday.

It is a genocide

The mayor of Kyiv who went to Bucha on Sunday, Vitaly Klitschko, told AFP that the exact number of victims was not yet known.

"We believe that more than 300 civilians died," he said.

"This is not a war, it is a genocide, a genocide of the Ukrainian population."

What happened in Bucha

Bucha, a commuter town of around 37,000 outside Kyiv, as well as the nearby town of Irpin, saw fierce fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

AP

Bucha was occupied by the Russian army on the third day of the war, on February 26, and remained inaccessible for more than a month.

Shelling stopped on Thursday and Ukrainian forces were only able to fully enter the town a few days ago.

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