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World leaders are reacting with outrage Monday as evidence is emerging of what appears to be deliberate killings of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian military in cities like Bucha.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited Bucha Monday, described the grisly acts as “war crimes” that “will be recognized by the world as genocide.”
Russia, meanwhile, is continuing to claim its military had nothing to do with deaths of the civilians, some of which were recently found dead with their wrists bound and with bullet wounds in their head.
Tanya Nedashkivs’ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband, killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
(AP/Rodrigo Abd)
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Here is how the world is reacting to the massacre in Bucha and the discovery of what Ukraine says is the bodies of 410 civilians in towns around the capital, Kyiv, that were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days:
- French President Emmanuel Macron said his government is “extremely shocked” at what happened in Bucha and “we have condemned it with the utmost strength.” Macron said it “was the Russian army that was in Bucha” and “those who committed these crimes will have to answer for them… What just happened in Bucha calls for a new round of sanctions and very clear measures.”
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said “the reports of Ukrainian civilians who have been killed, raped and severely wounded by Russian troops is beyond reprehensible” and that “Russia must answer to the world for what they’ve done.”
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, “I hope that everything possible can be done so that those behind these war crimes don’t go unpunished, and that they can appear before the courts, in this case, the International Criminal Court, to answer these alleged cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and, why not say it, of genocide, too.”
<strong>GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING: </strong>Volunteers carry the bodies of murdered civilians in Bucha on Monday.
(AP/Efrem Lukatsky)
- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said he was “strongly shocked that a brutal act of violence was conducted on civilians in the outskirts of Kyiv,” adding that “murdering innocent civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and it’s absolutely unacceptable.”
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said bodies found in areas recently recaptured from Russia showed “despicable attacks against innocent civilians, and they are yet more evidence that Putin and his army are committing what appear to be war crimes in Ukraine.”
- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a tweet that the “dreadful images of civilians killed in Bucha Massacre, Ukraine, by the Russian army are shocking. “Everything must be done for an independent investigation of such horrible crimes,” he added. “Nothing can ever excuse such cruelty. What a pain and what a shame!”
- Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the bodies found in Bucha reminded him of similar atrocities committed in his country during the 1998-1999 war between ethnic Albanian independent fighters and Serbian forces. “Mass graves, people brutally killed with body parts missing, burned houses and cities turned to rubble are all familiar scenes from genocidal regimes,” he posted Monday on Twitter.
- Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Monday that “Russia is already a totalitarian-fascist state today,” adding that “the bloody massacres perpetrated by Russian soldiers deserve to be called by name: This is genocide and this crime must be tried as the crime of genocide.”
Despite the chorus of criticism, Russia is urging world leaders to exercise restraint when it comes to talking about Bucha.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
((AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky))
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“This information should be seriously doubted. From what we have seen, the video material can’t be trusted, as our specialists from the Defense Ministry detected signs of video forgery and various fakes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed, despite a steady stream of pictures from news agencies confirming the death and destruction.
“The facts, the chronology of events also doesn’t speak in favor of the credibility of these claims… We would require many world leaders not to rush with statements, groundless accusations,” Peskov added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
