Bucha massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the Battle of Bucha | |
Location | Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine |
Date | March 2022 |
Target | Civilians |
Deaths | 500+ (per Ukraine)[1] |
Perpetrators | Russian Armed Forces |
The Bucha massacre ([ˈbut͡ʃɐ], BOOTCH-uh) was the killing and abuse of Ukrainian civilians by Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographic and video material of the massacre emerged on 1 April 2022 after Russian forces withdrew from the city.[2][3]
According to the mayor, more than 400 bodies were found in the aftermath of the incident.[4] Photo evidence showed that corpses of civilians, lined up with their hands bound behind their backs, had been shot at point-blank range, which ostensibly gave proof that summary executions had taken place.[5] An inquiry by Radio Free Europe confirmed the use of a basement beneath a campground as a torture chamber.[6] Many bodies were found mutilated and burnt,[7] and girls as young as fourteen reported being raped by Russian soldiers.[8] Ukraine has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate what happened in Bucha as part of its ongoing investigation of the invasion in order to determine whether a series of Russian war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed.[9][10]
Russian authorities have denied responsibility and instead claimed that Ukraine faked footage of the event or staged the killings itself as a false flag operation,[11] and have described footage and photographs of dead bodies as fake news from the West and a provocation or staged performance by Ukrainian authorities.[12] These assertions have been characterized as false by several groups and media organizations.[note 1] Eye-witness accounts from residents blame the Russian Armed Forces for the killings.[19][20][21]
As part of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military entered Ukraine from the southern border of Belarus. One of the initial moves was a push towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as part of which a huge column of military vehicles moved north of Kyiv. On 27 February 2022, Russian advance forces moved into the city of Bucha, making it one of the first outlying areas of Kyiv taken by Russian forces.[22][23] According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the Russian forces occupying Bucha were the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade of the 35th Combined Arms Army,[24] headed by Lt. Col. Azatbek Omurbekov.[25]
In late March, prior to the Russian retreat from Kyiv, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova stated that Ukrainian prosecutors had collected evidence of 2,500 suspected cases of war crimes committed by Russia during the invasion and had identified "several hundred suspects".[26] Matilda Bogner, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, also raised concerns about the precise documentation of civilian casualties specifically in regions and cities under heavy fire, highlighting the lack of electricity and reliable communications.[27]
Under attack by the Ukrainian military, Russian troops in the Bucha area retreated north as part of the general Russian retreat from the Kyiv area. Ukrainian forces entered Bucha on 1 April 2022.[28]
According to The Kyiv Independent, on 4 March Russian forces killed three unarmed Ukrainian civilians who were driving back from delivering food to a dog shelter.[29] At around 7:15 AM on 5 March, a pair of cars carrying two families trying to escape were spotted by Russian soldiers as the vehicles turned onto Chkalova Street. Russian forces opened fire on the convoy, killing a man in the second vehicle. The front car was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire, instantly killing two children and their mother.[30]
The town's mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, had told media outlets about war crimes in the city prior to the town's recapture. In a 28 March interview with Adnkronos, Fedoruk said Russian forces were guilty of crimes against humanity,[31] and on 7 March he had compared the situation in Bucha to a "nightmare" in an interview with the Associated Press, telling the reporters that "we can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night. Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets."[32][33]
The video footage to emerge following the Russian withdrawal was posted to social media on 1 April 2022, and showed mass civilian casualties.[13][34] According to the mayor of Bucha Anatoliy Fedoruk, "hundreds of Russian soldiers" were also among the bodies found in the region.[35] Subsequently, further evidence emerged which appeared to show war crimes committed by Russian forces while they occupied the region.[36] Soldiers of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces said they had found eighteen mutilated bodies of men, women, and children in a summer camp's basement in Zabuchchya, near Bucha.[37]
Footage released by the Ukrainian army appeared to show a torture chamber in the basement.[38] One of the soldiers said that some of the bodies had cut-off ears or pulled out teeth, and that the bodies had been removed a day before the interview.[37] Corpses of other killed civilians were left in the road.[35] An investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty verified that the basement was used as an "execution cellar" by Russian forces.[39]
A report published by The Kyiv Independent included a photo and information about one man and two or three naked women under a blanket whose bodies Russian soldiers tried to burn on the side of a road before fleeing.[28] Ukrainian officials said the women had been raped and the bodies burnt.[40] Journalists writing for The Kyiv Independent consider that photos indicated that Russians forces had singled out and killed Ukrainian civilian men in an organised fashion, with many bodies having been found with their hands tied behind their backs.[28]
Many of the victims appeared to have been going about their daily routines, carrying shopping bags.[20] Footage showed civilians dead with their hands bound. Other footage showed a dead man next to a bicycle.[41] Journalists entering the city themselves discovered the bodies of more than a dozen people in civilian clothes.[42]
CNN,[43] the BBC,[44] and AFP[45] released video documentation of numerous dead bodies of civilians in the streets and yards in Bucha, some of them with tied arms or legs. BBC News said of the 20 bodies on the street, some had been shot in the temple and some bodies had been run over by a tank.[46] On 2 April, an AFP reporter stated he had seen at least twenty bodies of male civilians lying in the streets of Bucha, with two of the bodies having tied hands.[47][48] Fedoruk said that these individuals had all been shot in the back of the head.[42]
On 5 April Associated Press journalists saw charred bodies on a residential street near a playground in Bucha, including one with a bullet hole in the skull, and a burned body of a child.[49] On the same date, The Washington Post reported that Ukrainian investigators found evidence of torture, beheading, mutilation and incinerations of corpses. The bodies of at least one of those killed was turned into a trap and mined with tripwires. Villagers who were asked to help to identify a beheaded body related that drunken Russian soldiers told them of carrying out sadistic acts against Ukrainians.[50]
By 9 April, Ukrainian forensic investigators had begun recovering bodies from mass graves, such as at the church of Andrew the Apostle.[51]
Residents and the mayor of the city said that the victims had been killed by Russian troops. They indicated many of the survivors had been hiding from the Russians in basements, too scared to come out. Some of them had no light or electricity for weeks, using candles for heating water and cooking. They came out of hiding only when it was clear the Russians had left, welcoming the arrival of Ukrainian troops.[20]
The BBC and The Guardian cited eyewitness accounts, from inhabitants of Bucha and the nearby villages of Obukhovychi and Ivankiv, of Russian troops using civilians as human shields as they came under attack by Ukrainian soldiers.[52][53]
The Economist reported an account of a survivor of a mass execution. After getting trapped at a checkpoint when it came under fire from Russian artillery, the man was captured by Russian soldiers, along with the construction workers he was sheltering with at the checkpoint. The soldiers moved them to a nearby building being used as a Russian base, strip-searched them, beat and tortured them, then took them to the side of the building to shoot and kill them. The man was shot in the side, but survived by playing dead and later fleeing to a nearby home.[54]
Residents, talking to Human Rights Watch (HRW) following the retreat of the Russian forces, described the treatment of people in the city during the occupation: Russian soldiers went door to door, questioning people, destroying their possessions, and looting their clothes to wear themselves.[55] HRW heard reports that civilians were fired upon when leaving their homes for food and water, and would be ordered back into their homes by Russian troops, despite a lack of basic necessities such as water and heat due to the destruction of local infrastructure.[55]
Russian armed vehicles would arbitrarily fire into buildings in the city. Russian troops refused medical aid to injured civilians. A mass grave was dug for local victims, and the troops carried out extrajudicial executions.[55] An HRW spokesperson said that it had documented at least one "unmistakable case" of summary execution by Russian soldiers on 4 March.[28][56]
According to a report by the New York Times, Russian soldiers killed residents of the town "recklessly and sometimes sadistically" in a "campaign of terror". Russian snipers killed unsuspecting civilians. A Ukrainian woman was kidnapped by Russians, held in a cellar, repeatedly raped, and then executed. Another group of women and girls were locked in a basement for almost a month; nine of them subsequently became pregnant. Individuals with hands tied behind their back and executed were found throughout the town, indicating that several Russian military units carried out the murders.[57]
According to a Kyiv resident, who was present at the Bucha headquarters of the territorial defence force, Russian soldiers checked documents and killed those who had participated in the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. He said that Russian troops killed people with tattoos associated with right-wing groups, but also those with tattoos of Ukrainian symbols. According to his account, in the last week of the occupation, Kadyrovite Chechen fighters were shooting at every civilian they encountered.[21][58] Another resident reported that Russian soldiers checked the cell phones of civilians for evidence of anti-Russian activity before taking them away or shooting them.[59]
A witness told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the Russians "were killing people systematically. I personally heard how one sniper was boasting that he 'offed' two people he saw in apartment windows.... There was no need. There was no military justification to kill. It was just torturing civilians. On other blocks, people were really tortured. They were found with their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the back of the head." Locals asserted the killings were deliberate and many reported that in several instances snipers would gun down civilians for no clear reason.[60]
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's human rights commissioner, stated that sexual violence against civilians was weaponized by the Russian soldiers as part of what she referred to as "genocide of Ukrainian people". According to Denisova, as of 6 April 2022, a special telephone helpline had received at least 25 reports of rape of women and girls from Bucha, aged between 14 and 24.[61]
External video | |
---|---|
Satellite imagery analysis published by The New York Times |
On 4 April, satellite images were provided to The New York Times by Maxar Technologies. The Times compared images to video evidence and concluded: "many of the civilians were killed more than three weeks ago, when Russia's military was in control of the town." The images of Yablonska Street show at least 11 "dark objects of similar size to a human body" appearing between 9 and 11 March. Their location precisely matches positions where the bodies were filmed by a local council member on 1 April after Ukrainian forces reclaimed the city.[18]
A second video on the same street shows three bodies near bicycles and abandoned cars, which according to satellite imagery appeared between 20 and 21 March. The Times concluded that the analysis rebuts Russian claims about the killing of civilians happening after withdrawal of the Russian army.[18] BBC News agreed that Maxar's satellite imagery from 19 March showed body-like objects in the same positions that corpses were filmed in the 1 April video, contradicting Russian claims of the corpses being "staged" after Russia's departure.[62]
The satellite images also showed the first signs of excavation for a mass grave at a church in Bucha on 10 March, which was further expanded into an "approximately 45-foot-long trench in the southwestern section of the area near the church" by 31 March.[63]
The mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, said that at least 280 individuals from the city had to be buried in mass graves.[28][47][64][42] Local residents had to bury another 57 bodies in another mass grave.[28] Serhiy Kaplishny, a local coroner who fled but returned, said that as of 3 April, his team had collected more than 100 bodies during and after the fighting (including deaths of soldiers and deaths from natural causes).[65]
He said that before leaving, he had hired a backhoe operator to dig a mass grave near the church, as the morgue was unable to refrigerate bodies due to the lack of electricity, and "It was a horror". He also said that since returning, he had picked up 13 bodies of civilians who had had their arms tied and been shot at close range.[65]
The exact number of people killed is unknown.[23] Fedoruk said at least 300 people had been found dead in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.[66] In an interview with Reuters, deputy mayor Taras Shapravskyi said only 50 of the victims had been confirmed as having been extrajudicially executed.[67] The figure of 300 was later revised to 403 on 12 April.[4]
Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said, "In Bucha alone the death toll is already higher than in Vukovar", referring to the killing of hundreds of Croat civilians and prisoners of war during the Croatian War of Independence.[68] On 13 April 2022, BBC News posted an article saying "at least 500 dead have been found since the Russians left" Bucha.[69]
Vitaly Vinogradov, the Academic Dean of the Kyiv Slavic Evangelical Seminary, was among the dead in Bucha.[70]
Ukrainian activists said that the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade, a motorized infantry brigade part of the Eastern Military District's 35th Army, was occupying Bucha while the atrocities took place.[71][72][73] In addition, two units of Kadyrovite Chechens, one from the Special Rapid Response Force (SOBR) and another paramilitary riot-control force known as OMON, were involved in the military occupation of Bucha, and nearby villages.[74][75]
Various Ukrainian groups used open intelligence sources to identify the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, unit 51460, as part of the occupation forces, in an effort to track down those responsible.[76] Ukrainian media published the names of Russian soldiers they claimed were based at Bucha during the occupation.[77][78] Ukrayinska Pravda, quoting the Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate, said that the 64th Motorised Rifle Brigade was pulled out of the area, with the intention of returning to Ukraine in the Kharkiv front.[79]
On 6 April 2022, CNN cited an unnamed US official as saying that identification of the Russian units involved in the Bucha atrocities was "an extremely high priority" for the US intelligence agencies, which had been using all available tools and assets in their work and were at the point of "narrowing down" responsibility.[80]
On 6 April 2022, the German intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), briefed parliamentarians regarding radio intercepts of Russian soldiers in the area north of Kyiv, which might be linked to the atrocities in Bucha. The intercepts apparently indicate that the Wagner Group played a leading role in the atrocities, that the killings were not considered exceptional by the soldiers discussing them, and, according to sources familiar with the intercepts, that the atrocities had become a standard element of Russian military activity.[81]
The National Police of Ukraine opened investigations into events in Bucha, with the broad area treated as a crime scene.[82] At the same time, the Foreign Ministry requested the International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine to send investigators to Bucha and other areas of Kyiv Oblast. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also called on other international groups to collect evidence.[83]
Russia requested a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council, on which it is one of five permanent members, to address what it called a "heinous provocation of Ukrainian radicals", the footage of dead bodies in Bucha, which it claimed was staged.[84] Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, ordered an investigation into what he labelled a "Ukrainian provocation", accusing Ukrainian authorities of spreading "deliberately false information" about the actions of the Russian armed forces.[85]
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the events as a "deliberate massacre". He said Russia was "worse than ISIS" and that Russian forces were guilty of murder, torture, rape and looting. Kuleba also urged the G7 countries to impose "devastating" additional sanctions.[86]
In an interview with Bild, Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said that "what happened in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv can only be described as genocide" and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes.[87] President Zelenskyy visited the area on 4 April 2022, to show reporters and the world the reported atrocities in Bucha.[88]
Speaking to the United Nations Security Council on 5 April, Zelenskyy said that the massacre was "unfortunately only one example of what the occupiers have been doing on our territory for the past 41 days",[89] and that Russian forces used tanks to crush Ukrainian civilians in cars "for pleasure".[90] He called for Russia to be held accountable for the actions of its military, and lose its position on the Security Council.[90]
The massacre was condemned by the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel, who said he was "shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv" and promised the EU would assist Ukraine and human rights groups in collecting evidence for use in international courts.[91] NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg similarly expressed his horror at the targeting of civilians.[92]
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his shock at the images and called for an independent investigation that would ensure effective accountability.[93][94] The UN Security Council convened on 5 April to discuss the situation, including a video address from President Zelenskyy.[95][96]
On 7 April, the United States initiated a resolution at the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, the UN's leading human rights body.[97] The resolution passed, with 93 countries voting for the proposal, 24 against, and 58 abstaining.[98] Russia is the second country to have its membership rights revoked at the council, after Libya in 2011, and the only permanent member of the Security Council to have its rights revoked.[97][98]
Foreign ministers from the G7 issued a joint statement condemning the "atrocities" committed by Russia in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine.[99]
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Bucha on 8 April viewing mass graves and describing the massacre as "the cruel face of Putin's army".[100] Von der Leyen later visited Kyiv and met with President Zelenskyy, presenting Zelenskyy with paperwork to begin the process of Ukraine's accession to the European Union and offering to fast-track Ukraine's application.[101]
Leaders of neighbouring and nearby European countries condemned the attack and called for investigations into the atrocities committed. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas compared the images of the event to those from mass killings committed by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and called for details to be gathered and perpetrators brought to court,[102] while Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger compared the massacre with the "apocalypse of war in former Yugoslavia".[103] Moldovan President Maia Sandu called the event "crimes against humanity" and declared 4 April 2022 a day of national mourning in memory of all Ukrainians killed in the Russo-Ukrainian war.[104] Amongst Ukraine and Russia's other neighbours, such condemnations were also expressed by political leaders in Finland,[105] Lithuania[106] Poland,[107] and Turkey.[108][109]
The events led to numerous European Union members – including Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden – ordering the expulsion of more than 200 Russian diplomats in total from their countries.[110][111] Such expulsions were also enacted by Japan.[112]
Representatives of China and India to the UN Security Council also described the reports as "deeply disturbing" and backed calls for international investigations.[113][114] In China, such reactions were also echoed at a press briefing for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although blame for the incident was not directly attributed to any of the involved actors.[115] This refusal to assign blame was followed by the repetition in Chinese state media of Russian claims disputing the veracity of the events.[116] Putin's ally, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, also called the Bucha massacre a "false flag attack" and a "psychological operation" orchestrated by British operatives in order to introduce new sanctions against Russia, and purportedly gave Putin documents relating to these allegations.[117][118][119]
US President Joe Biden called for Putin to be tried for war crimes. Biden also stated that he supported additional sanctions on Russia.[120][121] A similar sentiment was shared by British prime minister Boris Johnson, who said that economic sanctions and military support for Ukraine would be stepped up as a result.[122]
French President Emmanuel Macron described the actions of the Russian military as amounting to war crimes and that new sanctions were necessary in response. Macron suggested targeting the Russian oil and coal industries.[123] Subsequently, the European Union announced additional sanctions against Russia including a ban on imports of coal, wood, rubber, cement, fertilisers and other products from Russia. The ban on coal imports was expected to cost Russia €8 billion annually. The additional sanctions also included export bans on high-tech equipment and technology from Europe. In announcing the sanctions Josep Borrell stated that they were adopted "following the atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Bucha".[124]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the massacre a "fake attack" used against Russia, claiming it had been staged. He said that Russian forces had left Bucha on 30 March while evidence of killings had emerged four days later, following the arrival in Bucha of Ukrainian security service, and claimed that on 31 March Bucha's Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk had released a video message stating that the Russian army had left the city without mentioning any locals shot in the streets.[125][126] Associated Press reported that Mayor Fedoruk did give his account about "dead bodies piling up in Bucha" on 7 March.[127]
On 4 April, at the United Nations, the Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya said that the bodies in the videos were not there before the Russian forces withdrew from Bucha.[128] This was contradicted by satellite images which showed that the bodies were there as early as 19 March;[129] the position of the corpses in the satellite images match the smartphone photos taken in early April.[130]
The Russian Defence Ministry's Telegram channel reposted a report stating Russian forces had not targeted civilians during the battle. According to the statement, a massacre could not have been covered up by the Russian military, and the mass grave in the city was filled with victims of Ukrainian airstrikes. The Ministry said it had analyzed a video purporting to show the bodies of dead civilians in Bucha, and said the corpses filmed were moving. This claim was investigated by the BBC's Moscow Department, which concluded there was no evidence the video had been staged.[131]
Bellingcat favourably cited the BBC's account and further put into question the timeline presented by Russian government sources.[13] In particular, Bellingcat journalist and founder Eliot Higgins noted that both the Russian media outlet TV Zvezda and the secretary of the Bucha City Council Taras Shapravsky reported that Russian forces were still present in Bucha at least as late as 1 April.[13]
Another attempt to depict the incident as a fake aired on Russian state television channel Russia-24, using a video which claimed to show Ukrainians arranging mannequins in order to "stage" the Bucha massacre. The footage was quickly identified as coming from a television set filmed in Saint Petersburg. Workers for the television show confirmed that the video was from a Russian television show.[132]
In an article for The Conversation, journalist Tomas Sniegon described Russia's approach to Bucha as similar as the Soviet Union's denial of the Katyn massacre, in which Soviet troops covered up the execution of thousands of Poles, insisting the massacre had been done by the German army.[133] Comparisons between the two events were also made by The Asahi Shimbun[134] and Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Janša.[135]
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Presented content of the Wikipedia article was extracted in 2022-04-14 based on https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=70455343