News

Ukraine: New mass grave in the Kyiv region? – Politics

The latest news about an alleged mass grave with Ukrainians allegedly murdered by Russian soldiers came from the mayor of the municipality of Dmitrivka in the Kyiv region. In the village of Busowa, the bodies of several dozen civilians were found in a filled-up ditch next to a gas station, Taras Didich said late Saturday evening on Ukrainian television. The exact number of dead has not yet been determined.

The news, which could not initially be verified by independent observers, came just two days after another mass grave was discovered near the village of Makariv, also in the Kyiv region. “Until yesterday we found 132 civilians who were shot by the Russian orcs – I can’t call them people”, said village chief Vadim Tokar on TV.

All news about the war in Ukraine – twice a day by mail or push message

All reports and background information on the war in Ukraine – in the SZ in the morning and in the SZ in the evening. Our newsNewsletter updates you twice a day. Free registration under sz.de/tomorrowevening. In our news app (download here) you can also subscribe to the news newsletter or our breaking news as a push message.

The news from Busowa or Makariv comes just a few days after the Bucha massacre: Hundreds of murdered civilians had been found there since April 1 after the Russian troops withdrew. Bucha’s mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said that by April 6, 320 civilian bodies had been discovered. “There was not a single soldier among those who were shot and tortured by the Russian troops,” said Fedoruk the Ukraine Pravda (UP).

“More bodies in parks or woods”

The actual number of victims could be much higher: “There are many improvised burial sites, in backyards or cul-de-sacs”, quoted the Kyiv Independent in Bucha the 51-year-old professor Vladislava Lubarez. The police chief of the Kyiv region, Andriy Nebitov, assumes that more bodies will be found in parks or forests in the region.

The scale of the killing is all the more shocking when estimates of the number of residents who did not flee Russian troops are correct: according to Makariv’s mayor Tokar, fewer than 1,000 of the previously 15,000 residents remained under Russian occupation in the village. Bucha’s mayor Fedoruk estimated that only around 3,500 of the 50,000 inhabitants were still in the town and were being terrorized by the Russians.

The mayor himself escaped with his life only by luck. After the Russian invasion on March 3, Fedoruk persuaded his wife, daughter and mother-in-law to be taken to safety. He himself stayed in the village to organize the care of the remaining inhabitants. The mayor regularly changed his whereabouts and hid in acquaintances’ apartments or houses or in empty factories – with good reason.

The US government informed the UN human rights commissioner in Geneva shortly before the start of the war, Russian units drew up lists of already identified Ukrainian citizens “who are to be murdered or sent to camps in the event of a military occupation”. The London Institute RUSI described on February 15Russia’s secret services had drawn up death lists of Ukrainians to be murdered under the supervision of Dimitri Kozak, the deputy head of the Kremlin administration.

The mayor only survived with luck

According to RUSI, Russia has obtained their addresses, personal details and license plates since July 2021 through spies or by hacking the databases of Ukrainian car insurers. Kyiv human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matvichuk described the SZ, she was warned by Russian contacts in autumn 2021 that she and other activists were on a Russian death list.

After several days underground, Butscha’s mayor decided to return briefly to his house – and there he encountered a Russian machine gun position. To check his person, a Russian officer “pulled out of his pocket two printed lists of names” on which, with a spelling mistake, it also read “Fedorchuk, Anatoly Petrovich,” Fedoruk told the UP.

He told the officer that he was just an employee of the public utility company – luckily there were no photos of him, Fedoruk, in his house, and he didn’t have his passport with him. When the officer wanted to go with him to the address where Fedoruk allegedly kept his passport, he was called by radio to do another task. The mayor went into hiding – and only reappeared after the Russians left.

If Fedoruk’s report on the lists of names is correct, it would be the first direct confirmation that the Russian forces are using prepared lists to search for Ukrainian officials. Residents of Bucha also reported to the UP that the Russians went to addresses of active or former soldiers in particular. The Federal Intelligence Service is also said to have intercepted a radio message in which Russians said that Ukrainian soldiers were first being interrogated and then shot, he said mirror.

Targeted bombing of civilians

In addition to targeted murders of officials, Moscow repeatedly kills civilians. The human rights organization Amnesty International released a report on April 7 documenting killings of civilians by Russian forces in four locations in the Kyiv region alone. In addition, Moscow also uses targeted bombardments against civilians – the deadliest was a bomb dropped on the theater in the port city of Mariupol on March 16: 300 people died.

And after the rocket hit the Kramatorsk train station on Friday, 52 people have died so far. The Conflict Intelligence Team, which primarily evaluates Russian sources found several clues for the fact that Moscow wants to make it more difficult to rescue civilians from eastern Ukraine and that Russian units fired the rocket at Kramatorsk train station on Friday.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button