After the discovery of dozens of civilian bodies in Bucha and in the liberated areas around Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Russian military “butchers, murderers, torturers, rapists, looters”. In a harsh video message aired overnight, Ukraine’s president spoke of the “concentration of evil that has come upon our country” and said that the Russian military “deserves only to die after what it has done.” “I want the mothers of the Russian soldiers to see the bodies of the people who were killed in Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel. I want all leaders of the Russian Federation to see how their orders are being carried out,” Zelenskyi said again in Russian.
The Ukrainian President announced the creation of a special body to investigate the killings of civilians in the areas around Kyiv from which Russian troops have withdrawn.
Earlier, in a recorded message broadcast at the Grammy Awards ceremony, Zelensky called on the music world to support Ukraine “in any way possible, but not with silence.” Zelenskyy said music could “break” the wall of silence represented by destruction by Russian forces.