BUTCHERS OF BUCHA
Russia branded ‘worse than ISIS’ after troops execute more than 400 civilians in ‘genocide’ leaving bodies on the street
RUSSIA was accused of genocide and being "worse than ISIS" last night after horrifying pictures showed mass graves and executed civilians lying in the street.
At least 20 bodies, some with their hands bound, were seen strewn across a single street in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, on Sunday.
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Ukrainian officials say 410 people have been found dead in towns near Kyiv so far.
At least 300 were killed in Bucha alone, and 57 were discovered in one mass grave there.
Among those said to have been killed was a 14-year-old boy.
There have also been claims of rapes and the Kremlin’s soldiers "mutilating children".
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Bucha's mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said "all these people were shot," adding 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves elsewhere in the town.
Boxing legend Wladimir Klitschko posted a Twitter video from Bucha that he said showed civilians "shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back".
He said: "This is not a special military operation. This is genocide."
The Russian commander in charge in Bucha was named in reports today as Lt Col Azatbek Omurbekov.
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His 64th Motorised Rifle Brigade is said to have been sent from Russia's far east.
Volunteers who identified the unit online said: "Soon all these murderers, rapists and looters will be known by name."
Video emerged on Monday purporting to show the killing room where Russian soldiers tortured and executed ordinary people in the town.
The Kyiv Post reported: "In one of the houses in Bucha, Russian occupiers arranged a headquarters with two rooms. In the first room, they tortured civilian Ukrainians. In another room, they killed them in the back."
In nearby Irpin, one report claimed Russian kill squads shot women and girls and then drove over them in tanks.
Moscow’s fighters also booby-trapped corpses, sources added.
Chechen forces controlled the area at the time, it is claimed.
Russia last night insisted allegations it targeted civilians were "fake".
Moscow says no residents were hurt by Russian forces and accused Kyiv of staging the horrific crimes for western media.
In an unhinged rant, Russian state TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov said: "The war against Russia entered a new phase today. Very soon they'll accuse us of genocide.
"To all appearances, this whole provocation was plotted by the British."
But Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "Russia is worse than ISIS."
He told Times Radio: "They were killing civilians while leaving - out of anger and just because they wanted to kill.
"We are still gathering bodies but the number has already gone into hundreds."
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Boris Johnson warned that the sickening images are evidence that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine.
And he said Britain will step up sanctions and military aid in response.
"I will do everything in my power to starve Putin's war machine," he said yesterday.
He added: “No denial or disinformation from the Kremlin can hide what we all know to be the truth — Putin is desperate, his invasion is failing, and Ukraine’s resolve has never been stronger.
"We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground.
"The UK has been at the forefront of supporting the International Criminal Court’s investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine.
"The Justice Secretary has authorised additional financial support and the deployment of specialist investigators - we will not rest until justice is served."
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Ukraine's emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of the capital.
In Bucha, AFP journalists said at least nine bodies appeared to have been executed, including two whose hands were tied behind their backs.
Three were naked from the waist up while another man had his Ukrainian passport left open beside him.
Officials said bodies had not been collected because of fears Russians had booby-trapped them.
Yesterday Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky told the US news channel CBS: "They are mining all this territory.
"Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people.
"This is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people.
"We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities.
"This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities."
Meanwhile, Zelensky's spokesman told the BBC: "It looks exactly like war crimes.
"We found mass graves. We found people with their hands and with their legs tied up... and with shots, bullet holes, in the back of their heads.
"They were clearly civilians and they were executed."
'GESTAPO TACTICS'
Military expert Michael Clarke said there was no strategic benefit "whatsoever" for Vladimir Putin to order a massacre in the area as his troops retreat towards Belarus.
He it suggests Russian troops rounded people up according to lists "like the Gestapo".
"Some of these killings might have been as examples to the villages or revenge, but a lot of it, one suspects, is troops out of control."
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today called for the attacks to be "investigated as war crimes" insisting: "We will not allow Russia to cover up their involvement in these atrocities through cynical disinformation."
Referring to towns on the outskirts of Kyiv, she said: "As Russian troops are forced into retreat, we are seeing increasing evidence of appalling acts by the invading forces in towns such as Irpin and Bucha.
"Their indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians during Russia’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war crimes."
Melinda Simmons, Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, blasted: "Rape is a weapon of war. Though we don’t yet know the full extent of its use in Ukraine, it’s already clear it was part of an arsenal.
"Women raped in front of their kids, girls in front of their families, as a deliberate act of subjugation. Rape is a war crime."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the images a “punch in the gut” and that those responsible must be held accountable.
A US State Department spokesman hinted at additional action against Russia coming "very soon".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also vowed harder-hitting sanctions.
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RUSSIAN 'RETREAT'
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has already opened a probe into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Several Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of being a "war criminal".
Human Rights Watch also said it had documented cases of Russian troops committing possible war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of Chernigiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv, including rape and summary execution.
It comes as Ukraine said it had regained control of the Kyiv region, with Russian troops retreating from around the capital and Chernigiv city.
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that their forces had taken back more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion.
"The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader," Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Facebook.
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After more than five weeks of brutal fighting, Russia is understood to have regrouped for battles in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.
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