The mayor of Bucha said that about 320 civilians were killed by the Russian army

The mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, said that about “320 civilians were killed by the Russian army” during the occupation of the city.

Interviewed by the BBC, the official said he personally witnessed the execution of several people by Putin's forces.

“I have seen numerous episodes: three cars with civilians on board trying to leave the city in the direction of Kiev were brutally attacked by fire” by the military, “a pregnant woman whose husband was screaming not to be shot, brutally beaten,” he said. Fedoruk also said that Russian forces unleashed a real manhunt against local politicians.

The official also addressed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who denied the accusations of war crimes against Russian soldiers and urged him to “come to the city of Bucha”, look at the bodies of the dead and “look into the eyes of their relatives, mothers, husbands, orphans”.

Bucha, a suburb located in the northwest of Kiev, was occupied by Russian troops in the first days of the invasion. After the soldiers withdrew at the end of March, the Ukrainian authorities discovered dozens of bodies dressed in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied behind their backs. After weeks of horror during the Russian occupation, the inhabitants of Bucha are still desperately searching for their missing relatives.

Today, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said that an investigation into what happened is “next stage”.

“The world is already deeply shocked,” Martin Griffiths told a mayoral officer in Bucha, assuring that “the next step is to conduct an investigation.”

Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kiev region and the rest of northern Ukraine “is largely completed,” a Western military source said.

Now, eastern Ukraine is now the Kremlin's priority target. Its Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday the missile bombardment of four fuel tanks supplying Ukrainian forces.

Therefore, Ukraine urged civilians in the east of the country to take “the last chance” to leave before the impending Russian offensive and called on NATO members “arms, weapons and weapons” to defend themselves.

For the Ukrainian authorities, Moscow is preparing to launch a major attack in the area. “The next few days are perhaps the last chance to leave,” said Luhansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday on Facebook, stating that the Russians “were cutting off all possible avenues of exit.” “Do not hesitate to evacuate,” he insisted.

On the previous day, 1,200 people were evacuated from that area. The new call especially concerns the city of Severodonetsk, the easternmost point under Kiev's control and permanently shaken by Russian bombings.

Ukrainians fear a situation similar to that of Mariupol (southeast), the port of the Azov Sea that has been under siege for weeks and with thousands of people trapped in appalling conditions.

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