Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Bucha, Ukraine.
AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
- Ukraine says Russian forces killed at least 300 civilians were killed in Bucha, a town near Kyiv.
- Ukraine’s president and prosecutor general said the nearby town of Borodyanka likely has a higher death toll.
- Ukraine said people in Bucha were shot in the head with their hands tied and women were raped.
Ukraine said the town of Borodyanka, near Kyiv, will likely record a higher death toll than Bucha, the town where hundreds of civilians were estimated to be killed and Russia was accused of war crimes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about Bucha in a Tuesday speech, where he added that the death toll could be higher in other cities that Ukraine recently reclaimed from Russian forces. Ukraine said it retook control of Bucha earlier this week.
“There is already information that the number of victims of the occupiers may be even higher in Borodyanka and some other liberated cities.” Zelenskyy said.
“In many villages of the liberated districts of the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, the occupiers did things that the locals had not seen even during the Nazi occupation 80 years ago. The occupiers will definitely bear responsibility for this.”
Ukrainian officials said around 300 people were found dead in Bucha after Russian forces left the town. But Zelenskyy said the death toll there will likely rise as officials and investigators look through the town.
Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, also said Borodyanka likely had a higher death toll than Bucha.
She told Ukrainian TV that “in fact, the worst situation with civilian victims is in Borodyanka,” The Guardian reported.
Russia has been accused of war crimes in Bucha, and Zelenskyy accused Russia of genocide there.
The Zelenskyy advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said on Sunday that some victims there were shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back, and that some women there were raped before they were killed.
US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” over events in Bucha and said he was planning more sanctions.
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