The mayor of a Ukrainian village has been kidnapped, executed and thrown into a shallow grave along with her husband and son – as worrying satellite images showed a 45ft ditch where a mass grave was being dug in neighboring Bucha after killings were widely described as ‘genocide’ were decried.”
Olga Sucheko, the mayor of Motyzhyn, a suburban village outside the capital Kyiv, and her family are believed to have been kidnapped by invading Russian troops on March 23, Ukrainian officials said.
The troops then “tortured and murdered the whole family of the village headman,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
“The occupiers suspected that they were collaborating with our military and giving us locations to aim our artillery at.
“These scum tortured, slaughtered and killed the whole family,” he said, naming Sukhenko, her husband Ihor Sukhenko and their son Oleksandr.
A Reuters reporter saw the bodies in a shallow grave in a forest near a nearly destroyed farm, just outside Motyzhyn.
A Ukrainian policeman walks past a pit in the village of Motyzhyn where the bodies of the village’s mayor Olga Sucheko, her husband and son and a man believed to be a Ukrainian soldier lie. AP
Satellite imagery shows St. Andrew’s Church at the center of a suspected mass grave in Ukraine March 31, 2022. Satellite imagery ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP
People gather near a mass grave in the city of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, April 3, 2022. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images
One of those buried in the sand had masked his head with duct tape.
A fourth body – an unidentified man who appeared to be tied up – was seen in a well near the burned-out farm, where black burn marks climbed the few remaining walls, the Reuters reporter said.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed the mayor’s murder and said she was among 11 mayors and community leaders taken into Russian captivity across Ukraine.
The mayor of Motyzhyn Olga Sucheko (left) was killed by Russian troops along with her husband Igor and their son.
An elderly woman weeps April 2, 2022 near her home in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, where the city’s mayor said 280 people were buried in a mass grave. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
They were among the bodies of at least 410 civilians who were evicted from cities in the Kyiv region in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “genocide”.
Satellite images of a 45-foot trench dug in the site of a Ukrainian church where a mass grave was found about 20 miles from Motyzhyn in the Kiev suburb of Bucha emerged on Monday, revealing shocking scenes of bodies left on the street.
The images were shared by Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite images of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Western nations accused Russian troops of war crimes on April 3, 2022 after mass graves were discovered and civilians “executed” near Kiev.SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images
A partially buried body is seen in a mass grave in the city of Bucha SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images
The US company said the first signs of an excavation for a mass grave at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints were seen on March 10 and soon grew to at least 45 feet.
Reuters journalists visiting Bucha also saw a mass grave in a Bucha church, with hands and feet poking through the red clay piled on top.
The sickening scenes led other world leaders on Monday to declare it a clear genocide.
A woman cries as she waits with others for food distribution in Motyzhyn village April 3, 2022 AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
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The hand of a corpse buried with other bodies is seen in a mass grave in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for those responsible for the Bucha killings to be punished, saying they should “response to these alleged cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and, why not, genocide.”
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described Russia as a “totalitarian fascist state” and said: “The bloody massacres of Russian soldiers deserve to be called by their names: this is genocide.”
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said the photos of the bodies scattered around the city “commemorate the mass killings committed by Soviet and Nazi regimes”.
A Ukrainian police officer photographs the body of Hennadiy Merchynskyi after he was killed and thrown into a well by Russian forces. AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
“This is not a battlefield, this is a crime scene. Mass killings of Ukrainian civilians by #Russia are clearly war crimes,” Kallas said on Twitter, calling for “a 5th round of strong EU sanctions as soon as possible.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also said on Monday that there was “clear evidence of war crimes” in Bucha.
“What just happened in Bucha requires a new round of sanctions and very clear measures,” he said on radio station France-Inter. “We have to take action.”
Despite overwhelming evidence, Russia maintains its claim that it did not attack civilians during its so-called “military operation.”
Russia’s chief investigator dismissed the Bucha reports on Monday as “deliberately false information” and “provocation”.
With mail wires