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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told western reporters Thursday they didn’t understand how the atrocities of Bucha have affected Ukrainians after a video emerged depicting a wounded Russian soldier being shot.
“I want to reassure you that [the] Ukrainian army observes the rules of warfare,” he said noting that he had not seen the video but added it may have been an isolated incident that will be investigated.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
(AP/Felipe Dana)
“I want to double-check the date of this video because you should understand one thing – now you will not understand it, I’m sorry. But you don’t understand how it feels after seeing pictures from Bucha,” he said. “Talking to people who escaped, knowing that the person you know was raped for days. You don’t understand how it feels that Russian soldiers rape children.
“This is not an excuse to those who violate the rules of warfare on either side of the front line,” he continued. “But there are some things which you simply can’t understand. I’m sorry.”
Kuleba’s comments followed questions by a reporter who asked for his reaction to a video posted to social media that depicted two apparent Russian soldiers lying in the road in a pool of blood.
The video, first verified by The New York Times, shows one man still alive and struggling to breathe with his jacket pulled over his head.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE: A dead civilian with his hands tied behind his back lies on the ground in Bucha close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
ATROCITIES IN BUCHA, UKRAINE, APPEAR ‘PREMEDITATED,’ ‘DELIBERATE’: SENIOR US DEFENSE OFFICIAL
A translation by the Times notes one Ukrainian soldier pointed him out and said, “He’s still alive. Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping.”
A man to the right of the camera then shoots the man three times, killing him.
The war in Ukraine has raged for seven weeks after Russia invaded in late February under a “special military operation” to allegedly counter what Moscow deemed an oppressive government.
The U.S. and NATO have rejected these excuses as a false guise to excuse Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intended goal to overthrow the democratically elected government and install a puppet regime sympathetic to the Kremlin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center left, examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Apr. 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
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Russia has been accused of war crimes by the U.S., several European nations and Ukraine.
The U.N. has recorded 3,838 civilian casualties, including 1,611 killed and 2,227 injured – but the actual figures are expected to be significantly higher with Ukraine reporting 5,000 killed in Mariupol alone, according to the city’s mayor.
