“The Bucha massacre was deliberate. The Russians intend to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We must stop them and drive them out,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote in a chilling message in which he shared images of civilians executed by Putin's forces.
The chancellor demanded “new devastating G7 sanctions” such as oil, gas and coal embargo, the closure of all ports to Russian ships and goods, and the disconnection of all Russian banks from SWIFT.
“Kiev region. The hell of the 21st century. Bodies of men and women, who were killed with their hands tied. The worst crimes of Nazism have returned to Europe,” denounced presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. And he assured that the massacre “was done on purpose by Russia.”
Like Kuleba, he demanded an embargo on energy resources and the closure of seaports. “Stop the murders!” , he implored.
“It can only be described as genocide,” said Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschkob to the German tabloid Bild, adding that these are “cruel war crimes” for which Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held accountable. Klitschko stressed that the lifeless civilians found in the streets of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops “had their hands tied behind their backs,” as can be seen in the photographs disseminated.
“For everyone and in particular for Germany there can be only one consequence: Russia cannot receive a penny more,” demanded the mayor of Kiev and called for the implementation of an embargo on Russian oil and gas exports. “It is bloody money, which is used to massacre people,” he argued.
After the withdrawal of Russian forces, a tree-lined street in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, was filled with scattered bodies, as far as the eye could see.
All 20 bodies are wearing civilian clothes. Some seem to look at the cloudy sky, while others were left with their faces on the asphalt. Three of them were entangled in their bicycles while others, with pale skin, were lying near vehicles that were crushed or filled with bullet holes.
One has his hands tied behind his back next to his open Ukrainian passport, AFP journalists said they accessed Bucha. Another one lies lying next to a yellow fence painted with happy and sad emojis and the words “Live fast”.
Russia's hasty withdrawal after the occupation of the outskirts of Kiev reveals more devastation every day.
“All these people were shot, shot to the back of the head,” Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told AFP.
Another 280 people were buried in mass graves in Bucha while the bodies of entire families remain in shot cars, he added.
Surrounded by pine forests that extend to Belarus, Bucha was a quiet suburb of the Ukrainian capital. Until the Russian invasion. Despite a month of fierce fighting in villages such as Bucha and neighboring Irpin, Russian forces failed to surround Kiev, 25 km away, but total devastation.
In many buildings you can still see the holes left by the explosions, while cars are crushed everywhere, according to the AFP team that arrived in Bucha after access was closed almost a month ago.
Supermarkets, cafes and houses were burned or destroyed and a damaged church roof is visible. Only one McDonald's seems to have remained intact.
There are bodies scattered all over the city, in front of the train station or in the streets.
However, violence on this particular street seemed to be more systematic. The victims, who are apparently all men, were scattered over hundreds of meters.
Some corpses lie in groups, like two men who stood together with their faces up in a puddle, one wearing a green reaper and the other wearing a black jacket. Others died alone. A cyclist wearing orange gloves lay on his side with his bicycle on him, as if he had fallen without being able to get up.
Everyone wears civilian clothes, winter coats, jackets, jeans or divers and sneakers or boots.
Violence is everywhere. One silver car is pierced with bullets, another is partially crushed, while a van was burned along with some dead bodies. “These are the consequences of the Russian occupation,” the mayor lamented.
But the horrors of war have become so routine in Bucha that the inhabitants walk by the bodies and barely look at them.
Ukrainian forces recently regain control of Bucha and began their first delivery of aid yesterday, so the dead could still be slow to be buried. Soldiers delivered food and medicine to desperate survivors from the back of a military truck. It is the first installment in more than a month, after Ukraine announced on Saturday that Russian forces were carrying out a “rapid withdrawal” from Kiev.
“They are on the run,” said Yurily Biriukov, a member of a Ukrainian territorial defense squadron, consisting of volunteers, which oversees the relief operation. The inhabitants of Bucha “are still very frightened, shocked,” he added. “People can't imagine the conditions in which they lived this month, with artillery, without food or water, without the possibility of getting out,” he said.
One resident showed AFP what he said was a grave covered with a green cross in the back garden of a house, where four people, including a child, were buried. The people who stayed in Bucha are mostly old people.
In a collective outdoor kitchen, a group of elderly people stir pots of borscht and stew over a makeshift kitchen, next to a yellow Lada with flat wheels. Russian soldiers broke into apartments on the top floor of a Soviet-era building, stole belongings and asked an older woman if she had weapons, they tell. Then, on Tuesday, they saw more than 70 Russian armored vehicles leaving the village in the opposite direction of Kiev. The bombing ended on Thursday.
“If there was peace, everything would be wonderful,” said 82-year-old Nadia Protopopova.
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