The authorities Ukrainian reported the discovery of three bodies of men with signs of torture in a trench near Bucha, an area occupied for weeks by Russian troops who bombed Kharkiv and other cities in the east of the country on Saturday (30).
The bodies, which were retrieved from a ditch in the town of Myrotske, were bound and blindfolded, said Kiev police chief Andriy Nebytov. “The victims were tortured for a long time… In the end, everyone was shot in the temple,” he said.
Myrotske is near Bucha, a town in the Kyiv region that has become a symbol of the horrors of war in Ukraine since early April after Russian troops withdrew dozens of civilianclad bodies were discovered in the streets .
Nebytov said that in Myrotske “the occupiers [russos] tried to hide evidence of their abuse, so they dumped the bodies in a pit and covered them with earth”.
Ukrainian prosecutors said this week that since the Russian invasion began on February 24, they have identified more than 8,000 war crimes and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for their alleged involvement in the Bucha atrocities.
Russia denies involvement in the massacres, saying it was an arrangement orchestrated by the Ukrainian government.
Bombings in Kharkiv
Russian troops, encountering unexpected resistance in the north, have been focusing their attacks on the east for several weeks, backed by proRussian separatists in the Donbass region and the south.
Kharkiv (in the east) suffered multiple artillery bombardments on Saturday, leaving one dead and five wounded, said the military administration of the city, the second largest in Ukraine. Antonina, a resident of Kharkiv, found the house destroyed and a missile in the area where the bathroom was. “It was scary,” he said.
The concentration of Russian troops in the east does not prevent the bombing of other regions. The airport in Odessa (south) was attacked by a Russian missile on Saturday, destroying its runway but causing no casualties, the region’s governor said.
Several rockets were fired at Kyiv on Thursday (28th) during the visit of the UN Secretary General. Antonio Guterres. The Russian government said the attack was aimed at a missile factory.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy complained that the international community had “no answer to such a deliberate and brutal humiliation of the United Nations by Russia”.
melee
The Ukrainian government admits that several villages in the Donbass region have fallen into Russian hands, but assures that it is also inflicting heavy blows. “The situation in the Kharkiv region is difficult, but our armed forces and intelligence services have made important tactical successes,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address.
Ukrainian troops announced they had recaptured a “strategically important” village near Kharkiv, Ruska Lozova, and evacuated hundreds of civilians.
A NATO source said Russia was making “small and erratic” progress due to the counterattack by Ukrainian troops armed by Western countries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Chinese state news agency Xinhua that his country’s offensive went “according to plan”. Lavrov also called on NATO to stop sending weapons to Kyiv “if it is really interested in solving the Ukraine crisis.”
Thousands have died and millions have fled their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine, a former Soviet republic under its rule during the Cold War but now seeking to strengthen its alliance with Western countries.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday denounced the destruction of Ukraine and criticized what he called the “depravity” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After weeks of besieging and bombing the city, Russia managed to take control of the strategic port of Mariupol (southeast). But the last stronghold of the fighters, along with many civilians, is in the tunnels of the large Azovstal steelworks complex.
The United Nations said it was trying to evacuate civilians, but Dennis Pushilin, leader of the proMoscow breakaway Donetsk region, accused Ukrainian forces of “acting like terrorists” for allegedly holding civilians at the steel mill.
In the Mariupol port area, AFP reporters heard the heavy bombardment of Azovstal on Friday (29) during a press visit organized by the Russian army.
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk said 14 Ukrainian nationals, including a pregnant military wife, were exchanged for an unspecified number of Russian prisoners on Saturday.