Russia denies allegations, calls UN meeting near Kyiv ‘after bodies of 410 civilians are found’
Russia denies allegations, calls UN meeting near Kyiv ‘after bodies of 410 civilians are found’
US President Joe Biden on Monday called for a war crime trial over alleged atrocities against civilians in Buka, Ukraine, and said he wants to impose more sanctions on Russia.
Calling President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and the killings a “war crime”, Mr Biden told reporters there should be a “war crime trial”.
Mr Biden has called Mr Putin a war criminal in the past, prompting an angry reaction from the Kremlin.
“You will remember that I was criticized,” he said. “Well the truth of the matter is, you saw what happened to Buka… This man is cruel and what is happening to Buka is disgraceful and everyone has seen it.”
Mr Putin is “a war criminal,” he said – but added that “we have to collect all the details” so that tests can be conducted.
Over the weekend international journalists found bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied, in the city of Bucha outside Ukraine’s capital, when Kyiv’s army withdrew it from Russian forces.
The scale of the killings is still being added together. On Sunday, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said 410 civilian bodies had been recovered in the wider Kyiv region after Russian troops were withdrawn.
There is anger in Ukraine and Western leaders over the deaths in Bucha.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin dismissed allegations that the Russian military was responsible for the killing of civilians near Kyiv and suggested that the images of the corpses were “fake”.
“We categorically reject all allegations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Mr Peskov said Russian “defense ministry experts have identified signs of video fakes and various fakes”.
“We would demand that many international leaders do not rush into broader allegations and at least listen to our arguments,” Mr. Peskov said.
Russia’s foreign ministry has called a special meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, saying it was a “heinous provocation” to blame the Russian military.
Russian investigators also announced an investigation into the images, saying they “do not correspond to reality and are provocative in nature”, according to Moscow’s military.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the civilian deaths would be considered a “genocide” by international leaders.
During Bucha’s visit, Mr. Zelensky said, “These are war crimes and the world will recognize it as genocide.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday called for an international investigation into what he called a “genocide”.
The US also said it would ask the UN Human Rights Council to suspend Russia, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said urgent discussions were underway on tougher sanctions against Russia.
humanitarian crisis
Russia has doubled its efforts in Ukraine’s south and east, including attacks on the strategic Black Sea port of Odessa on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said more than 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees have now fled the country since the Russian invasion, adding that the humanitarian situation was deteriorating.