President Volodymyr Zelensky said that additional dead were expected to be discovered in territories seized from Russian invaders, as the US and Europe planned further penalties on Tuesday to punish Moscow for civilian killings in Ukraine.
Last week, Russian soldiers retreated from cities north of Kyiv, refocusing their offensive on Ukraine’s south and east. Ukraine’s soldiers retook towns that had been ravaged by the conflict for over six weeks, including Bucha, where dead people littered the streets. On Monday, shocking photographs of a mass burial in Bucha and the bound remains of those shot at close range sparked a worldwide uproar.
President Joe Biden of the United States has called for a war crimes prosecution for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the US will petition the United Nations General Assembly to exclude Russia from the Human Rights Council. Russia disputed any reports of civilian deaths and said it will offer “empirical proof” indicating its forces were not engaged at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
The Consequences of War
And this is only one little town. “This is one of several Ukrainian settlements that Russian soldiers have taken over,” Zelenskiy stated. “There is now intelligence that the number of occupier casualties in Borodyanka and some other freed Ukrainian towns maybe even much higher,” he continued, referring to a town 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of Bucha.
Many bodies were witnessed in Bucha that seemed to have been shot at close range, as well as improvised funerals and a mass grave, but was unable to independently verify the number of people killed or who was responsible. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, stated he discussed Bucha with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, emphasizing that “Ukraine would utilize all relevant UN channels to collect evidence and bring Russian war criminals accountable.”
In a phone chat with his Chinese colleague Wang Yi on Monday, Kuleba reiterated Beijing’s desire for talks to end the situation in Ukraine. The call was the first documented high-level communication between the two nations since March 1, when Kuleba encouraged Beijing to utilize its relations with Moscow to stop Russia’s invasion, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry at the time.
