Ukraine documented 1,200 war crimes in the Kiev region alone

In the Kiev region alone, including the capital of the country, Ukrainian security agents have already documented and recorded more than 1,200 acts considered war crimes attributed to Russians, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said Tuesday.

“In the Kiev region alone, we have recorded more than 1,200 cases of war crimes. These are looting and crimes committed by orcs (as some Ukrainians call Russians) in our territories,” the minister denounced on local television channels, reports the agency Ukrinform.

Referring to the alleged crimes of Russian troops recorded in the territories already liberated by the Ukrainian army, Monastyrsky noted that “investigators of the National Police, Security Service and Prosecutor's Office are already working together to establish, record evidence and identify who might have committed these crimes.”

“All those (Russians) who have been taken prisoner are identified and placed at the disposal of the Ukrainian Security Service and the military authorities for law enforcement,” he stressed.

Once this procedure is over, “they will be transferred to the Ministry of Justice,” he said, “where they will go to court and may be questioned”.

As previously announced by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine is holding on its territory 600 Russian prisoners captured since the Russian Army's invasion of their country began on 24 February,

“When we talk about the total number (of military prisoners), there are about 600 now. We have to build a special camp in accordance with international law” to house them, Vereshchuk said during the broadcast of the so-called telethon, a television program that is broadcast jointly by local broadcasters.

Suspicions that the Russian Army has committed war crimes in Ukraine have increased after the discovery of hundreds of bodies of civilians, some of them tied and previously tortured, in cities such as Bucha, following the withdrawal of troops from Russia.

The Government of Kiev, several NGOs and international institutions have called for an investigation to document those possible war crimes that Russia has denied and attributes to “a montage”.

UN: Bucha images suggest deliberate murders of civilians

On Tuesday, the UN Office for Human Rights said that images of the alleged massacre in Bucha “seem to suggest” that civilians were deliberately killed there, something that would constitute a war crime.

“We are trying to access Bucha, we don't have direct information, but what we have seen is alarming,” office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said at a press conference.

He stressed that images showing bodies with their hands tied or burned could indicate that the aggressors were deliberately searching for such victims, which could increase the seriousness of the human rights violations committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, if the facts were confirmed.

“Last week High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet already spoke of possible war crimes in the context of bombing civilian infrastructures, but this appears to be a direct murder of civilians,” the spokeswoman stressed, who clarified that the images still need to be verified for veracity.

“In specific incidents, forensic analysis, monitoring and information gathering are needed to determine who did what,” stressed Throssell, stating that accountability often “takes time.”

(With information from EFE)

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