According to a Ukrainian prosecutor, Russian soldiers are suspected of “cruel treatment” of civilians and “other violations of the law”. In early April, the bodies of many Ukrainians disguised as civilians were found in Boutcha.
Ten Russian soldiers have been charged with alleged war crimes in Boutcha, Ukraine’s attorney general announced on Thursday, the day the UN chief visited this Kiev suburb that has become a symbol of the horrors of war.
A “cruel treatment of civilians”?
“Ten soldiers of the Russian 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade, part of the Russian 35th Army, have been charged in connection with the cruel treatment of civilians and other violations of the laws and customs of war,” they said, prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said on Telegram.
On April 2, AFP journalists in Boutcha discovered a street littered with bodies, those of men dressed as civilians. And the United Nations claimed, after an operation in that city on March 9,
According to the investigation, during its occupation of Boutcha in March, the Russian military “took hostage civilians who did not take part in the hostilities and were unarmed. The occupiers gave them neither food nor drink,” explained the prosecutor.
“The suspects made them kneel, blindfolded them with cloth and sticker paper, tied their hands with plastic ties and threatened to kill them by deliberately shooting in their direction,” he said.
First charge since the bodies were found in Boutcha
“In one case, in order to obtain information about the whereabouts of Ukrainian soldiers, the Russian military unjustly inflicted injuries on civilians. They received beatings, slaps on the legs, toes and upper body. The occupiers also looted the local population and confiscated their staff belongings and household appliances,” he said.
The prosecutor added that the ten men would be subject to a search with a view to arresting them and bringing them to justice. These charges are the first since AFP discovered 20 bodies of people in civilian clothes on a street in Boutcha on April 2, drawing condemnation and outrage around the world.
The Ukrainians accused the Russians of war crimes, but Moscow denied any responsibility, saying the bodies were “staged” by Kyiv.