Ukraine denounced this Sunday a “deliberate massacre” of civilians by the Russian Army in the areas it occupied near kyiv, in particular in the town of Bucha. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusations. and assured that the images of hundreds of corpses in the streets of Bucha, which triggered a series of international condemnations, were “another production of the kyiv regime for the Western media”. For this reason, Moscow requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council for this Monday.
In the devastated town of Buchain the surroundings of the Ukrainian capital, the Ukrainian authorities denounced having found the bodies of 410 civilians after Russian troops withdrew from the area. President Volodimir Zelenskydescribed the situation as “genocide”. In contact with US television, the president said: “It is the elimination of an entire nation and its people. We are citizens of Ukraine and we have more than 100 nationalities living here. This is the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”
Journalists from the French news agency AFP saw at least 20 bodies, all in civilian clothes, lying in a street on Saturday. Three of the bodies were entangled in bicycles, while others fell near crushed or bullet-hole vehicles. One had his hands tied behind his back and his Ukrainian passport was open next to his body. “All those people got shot”said the mayor of Bucha, Anatoli Fedoruk. “These are the consequences of the Russian occupation,” she lamented.
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha”said for his part the Secretary General of the UN, Anthony Guterres. According to the international organization, which calls for an independent investigation and preservation of evidence, the discovery of mass graves raises serious questions about possible war crimes.
However, the UN also said that it could not be ruled out that among the bodies were those of “Ukrainian or Russian soldiers who died during hostilities”. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the European Union (EU) expressed their horror and called for those responsible to be brought before the international court in The Hague.
Russia’s response
Russiainstead, denied the accusations and claimed that the images of murdered civilians were a Ukrainian fabrication. “All photos and all videos published by the kyiv regime, which allegedly testify to some kind of crime by Russian military personnel in the city of Bucha, are another provocation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“While the city was under the control of Russian troops, and even more so after, until today in Bucha, local residents moved freely around the city and used mobile phone communications,” says the Kremlin, which also ensures that it did not block the departure from the city and that “all local residents had the opportunity to freely leave the locality in a northerly directionincluding to the Republic of Belarus”.
The portfolio headed by Serguei Shoigu pointed out that lUkrainian troops fired “24 hours a day with large-caliber artillery, tanks and multiple launch rocket systems” on the southern outskirts of the city, including residential areas.. “We want to especially note that all Russian units completely left Bucha on March 30, the day after the round of face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey,” Defense said.
Russia maintains that it was on March 31 when the mayor of Bucha celebrated in a video message that there were no longer any Russian soldiers in the city, “but never mentioned that local residents were shot in the streets with their hands tiedTherefore, “it is not surprising that all the so-called evidence of crime in Bucha appeared only on the fourth day, when officers of the State Security Service and representatives of Ukrainian television arrived in the city,” Moscow alleges.
bombed odessa
In the meantime in OdessaUkraine’s main port on the Black Sea, explosions were heard early Sunday morning and Russia said it destroyed a refinery and fuel depots. The installations supplied fuel to the Ukrainian forces in the direction of the city of Mikolaiv, more to the east, explained the Russian Ministry of Defense.
After these explosions, which were felt around six in the morning local, columns of black smoke were seen in an industrial zone of this port city. It was a rocket attack that left no casualties, an official from the Southern regional command, Vladislav Nazarov, said in a statement. This historic southern city is considered strategic for its large port that allows access to the Black Sea and the rest of Ukraine.
Russia accuses Ukraine of blockading Mariupol
Russian efforts to consolidate its control in southern and eastern Ukraine are so far undermined by the resistance in Mariupol. At least 5,000 people died in the siege of that other port city in the south of the country, according to local authorities, while the 160,000 who remain there suffer from a lack of food, water and electricity.
The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian authorities on Sunday of “thwarting” the operation to evacuate civilians from the city.. According to the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, the section of the road adjacent to Mariupol “was subjected to repeated attacks by units of the Ukrainian Army and nationalist battalions with mortars and high-caliber weapons. “.
“As a result of this, the humanitarian column accompanied by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross remained for two days waiting for the ceasefire of the nationalists and the confirmation of the kyiv authorities of the ‘regime of silence’, which ultimately did not take place,” Mizintsev argued.
Negotiations continue
In a possible sign of progress towards ending the fighting, the chief Russian negotiator in the peace talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinski, praise on Sunday a “more realistic” position of kyiv, willing under conditions to accept a status of neutrality, as requested by Moscow. However, Medinski specified that a suitable draft agreement is not yet ready to be submitted to the presidents of the two countries.
Moscow must respond to a series of Ukrainian proposals with a view to an agreement. kyiv proposes the neutrality of Ukraine and renounce to join NATO, but under the condition that its security is guaranteed by other countries against Russia. It also proposes negotiations to resolve the status of the Ukrainian Donbass and Crimea.
Those proposals were made during live talks in Istanbul earlier this week. Those negotiations continued on Friday by videoconference, and a new round is scheduled for this Monday, according to Medinski.