“They shot at everything that moved”: a resident of Boutcha recounts the atrocities of the Russians

Nicolas Tonev (special envoy to kyiv) and William Molinié, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:30, April 06, 2022

TESTIMONY

These are images that shocked the world.

Corpses were found in the streets of the town of Boutcha, northwest of kyiv in Ukraine.

A "massacre" and "atrocities" attributed by the West to Russian forces.

Met by the special envoy of Europe 1 Nicolas Tonev on the spot, Vladislaw, a resident of the town, said he saw with his own eyes the soldiers shoot down his neighbors.

"The Russian soldiers checked all the inhabitants to find out if they had tattoos on their bodies," he said at the microphone of our special correspondent.

>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here

This group of six people who shot at civilians

"They were looking for clues to prove that they were linked to military actions or nationalists. If so, they would shoot in the back of the neck or anywhere," adds the resident in this rare testimony.

“There is even a photo with eight dead people on the ground next to where they were checked. Everything happened in front of us, in front of me and in front of other witnesses who were there and who saw everything”, reports Vladislaw.

A few days before the Russians withdrew from the city, the resident said that a group of six armed people dressed in black entered his neighborhood and fired on civilians.

"There was a grandfather sitting on a bench in his yard, he was preparing a fire to eat. A guy dressed in black shot him," recalls Vladislaw, who continues the description of the scene.

"They were in black uniforms. Some said they were special services. Others said they were the men of Ramzan Kadyrov (the president of the Republic of Chechnya, editor's note). They were shooting at everything that moved mercilessly."