A BBC report indicated that the mercenary group Wagner was allegedly instrumental in the Buka killings. Russian soldiers also appeared to have played a key role in the killings, with the Kremlin denial of any role. The report was based on Russian messages allegedly intercepted by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service.
According to German media, the country’s intelligence overheard Russian soldiers discussing the killing of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine.
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The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that some radio traffic tracked by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) appeared to match the locations of bodies found just outside Kyiv.
However, the Federal Intelligence Service has yet to comment on the issue. The Ukrainian administration has said that more than 300 civilians were killed in Buka by the Russians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing the genocide. But Russian President Putin has denied all the allegations.
Photos of the streets of Bucha showing bodies scattered all around shook the international community. Some scenes suggested that the victims had their hands tied and were shot in the back of the head.
The Ukrainian city of Buka was seized by Russian troops shortly after Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine on 24 February. The Russians withdrew from Buka after more than a month, and Ukrainian forces entered the city.
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BND shared its data with German lawmakers on Wednesday.
The German magazine said that in an intercepted radio message, Russian soldiers were talking about questioning people and then shooting them. In another, a Russian soldier talked about shooting someone on a bike. This appears to match the description of a dead cyclist seen in a photograph of Buka.
Der Spiegel reported that intercepts from Germany also indicated that mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group played a key role in the massacre. A security official told Reuters news agency: “It is true that [German] The federal government has signs of a Russian crime in Buka. However, these findings on Buka refer to satellite images. The radio broadcast obviously cannot be assigned to Buka.”
The Russian administration said its forces withdrew from Buka on March 30. But the Ukrainian government said the massacre took place as early as March 31.
On April 1, a video surfaced in which bodies were visible on both sides of the road. Russia responded by saying that the footage showed “fake bodies” and that it was “staged”.
However, a March 19 satellite image by Maxar Technologies refuted Russia’s claim.
The photo showed objects that appeared to be corpses in the exact same spot where they were later found by the Ukrainian military after they gained control of Buka.
,With inputs from BBC,
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