What is the evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine?
The Russian redeployment away from Kyiv has allowed more towns to be liberated and evidence has been found of multiple war crimes.
As Russia has moved its troops eastwards and away from Kyiv, evidence has emerged of multiple atrocities committed on the civilian population in Ukraine. Towns that have been occupied since the first week of the war are for the first time having light shone upon them, and it is not a pleasant sight. Mass graves and dead civilians have been found in abundance. Journalists from AFP and the BBC have been able to access the towns and verify the discoveries.
The reaction has been swift to condemn Russia for these actions. Further sanctions are expected to be levied against Vladimir Putin and his government.
Warning: Article contains content some readers may find disturbing.
What atrocities have been committed?
Central to the atrocities is the town of Bucha, on the road to Kyiv. Earlier in the war it was the site of a deadly confrontation between a Russian armoured column and Ukrainian drones. Like the advent of the aircraft carrier nullifying the battleship, unmanned drones seem to be the conqueror of the tank. Charred Russian bodies amidst battered tanks and personnel carriers litter the central road of the town.
With evidence like this, it is easy to see why the Russian advanced stalled.
As the Russians pulled out of the town in the last week, they left a gruesome discovery for the Ukrainian liberators. Bodies of civilians, some with their hands tied, were found by journalists in the town. A Ukrainian journalist who had been missing for two weeks, Maksim Levin, was found dead.
“All these people were shot,” Bucha’s mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told AFP, adding that 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves in the town.
“These are the consequences of Russian occupation,” Fedoruk added.
What has the global reaction been?
NATO was quick to chastise Russia for what could constitute as a war crime. Speaking to CNN, NATO chiefJens Stoltenberg said the deaths were "a brutality against civilians we haven't seen in Europe for decades" and that this "underlines the importance that this war must end".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was similarly scathing in an interview with CBS.
Indeed, 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.
French President Emmanuel Macron has described the images from Bucha as "unbearable", while Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said she was “appalled by atrocities in Bucha and other towns in Ukraine”.
“Reports of Russian forces targeting innocent civilians are abhorrent. The UK is working with others to collect evidence and support @IntlCrimCourt war crimes investigation. Those responsible will be held to account,” Truss tweeted on Saturday.