The French news agency quoted a Ukrainian official as saying that 57 bodies had been found in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, amid Western criticism of what was described as "Russian crimes", while Moscow denied responsibility for these events.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry had published pictures that it said were in the town of Bucha, showing corpses scattered in the streets.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry accused the Russian forces that controlled Bucha of carrying out executions and massacre of the population.

The ministry likened the situation in Buca to what happened in the Bosnian "Srebrenica", in which thousands were killed during the war in the mid-1990s.

The Al Jazeera team was able to enter the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, after the Ukrainian forces regained control of it.

Al-Jazeera correspondent examined more than 15 bodies buried in a mass grave near the town's church, and monitored widespread destruction in the town, in which Ukraine accuses Russian forces of carrying out mass executions.

In the reactions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the world witnessed what he described as numerous war crimes at different times and different places, and explained that it was time to do everything so that the Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine became "the last manifestation of this evil on earth." .

He added that the UN Security Council will consider tomorrow, Tuesday, what he described as war crimes committed in Bucha and other towns, noting that hundreds of civilians were killed in Bucha and other Ukrainian towns, and that there is a new package of sanctions against Russia, but he considered it insufficient.

In turn, Kyiv Governor Vitali Klitschko accused Russian forces of carrying out genocide against Ukrainians.

The governor said while inspecting the ruins in the town of Bucha, that Russian forces executed civilians while they were handcuffed in the town.


On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry denied that civilians in the city of Bucha had been subjected to any attack when the city was under the control of Russian forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry described all the photos and video recordings published by Ukraine about allegations of crimes committed by Russian forces against civilians in Bucha as "fabrication, a provocative act, and a new review by the Ukrainian authorities."

The Russian Defense explained that the southern regions of Bucha had earlier been subjected to heavy fire by the Ukrainian forces, using heavy artillery, tanks and rocket launchers.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that all Russian forces completely left the city of Bucha on March 30.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed what she called "Ukrainian extremists" for the crime against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

"The aim of the crimes perpetrated by Ukrainian extremists in the Ukrainian city of Bucha is to disrupt peace talks and escalate violence," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

She said that Moscow had requested a session of the UN Security Council on "the provocation of the Ukrainian military and extremists in the city of Bucha".

international condemnations

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described the pictures coming from the Ukrainian town of Bucha as painful, and said in an interview with CNN that his country is documenting what he described as Russian war crimes in Ukraine, to present them to the relevant international institutions.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed his deep shock at the images of civilians killed in Bucha, noting the need for an independent investigation to lead to effective accountability.

While the human rights office of the international organization said that the bodies in the Ukrainian city of Bucha raise serious questions about possible war crimes.

For his part, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that his country is at the forefront of countries supporting the International Criminal Court's investigation into the atrocities committed in Ukraine.


In France, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the Russian authorities to be held accountable for their crimes in the city of Bucha and the killing of civilians in the streets, while German Chancellor Olaf Schulz called for international organizations to be allowed access to Bucha, to document the Russians' atrocities against civilians.

As for the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, he said that the European Union will help human rights organizations and Ukraine in collecting the necessary evidence to be submitted to international courts, adding that the Union will provide more support to Ukraine and impose more sanctions on Russia.

In the field developments, the Ukrainian Air Force Command announced the downing of two Russian Sukhoi-34 and Sukhoi-35 fighters, in addition to two cruise missiles and a helicopter, and an air control plane was hit during the past 24 hours.

Also, in the field, fuel tanks inside the port of the city of Odessa, southern Ukraine, were bombed by Russian missiles at dawn on Sunday, causing fires.

The Ukrainian military operations command in the southern region confirmed that the bombing did not result in casualties.

The British Ministry of Defense also said that violent battles erupted in Mariupol during the attempt of the Russian forces to occupy the entire city, adding that Mariupol is being subjected to intense and indiscriminate Russian bombardment, and that the Ukrainian forces are resisting fiercely and retaining control of the city center.

She pointed out that Mariupol is a major target for the Russian invasion because it secures a land corridor from Russia to the Crimea.

US aid continues

In the Belgorod region, official Russian sources said that an explosion was heard in the town of "Tomarovka", followed by the fall of shrapnel believed to be from a Ukrainian shell.

Eyewitnesses reported that the explosion, which the townspeople heard, was the result of Russian air defense systems dropping a Ukrainian shell in the area.

For his part, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that shipments of military aid have arrived in Ukraine during the past hours, noting that Washington is providing Kyiv with Javelin and Stinger missiles and other military equipment.


Kirby stressed in an interview with "FoxNews" that Washington will continue to provide this military equipment due to Ukraine's need for it, he said.

The White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klein, considered that the Ukrainian forces are achieving a victory in the vicinity of Kyiv and the north of the country, thanks to the valor of its soldiers and the support provided to them by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Klein added in a television interview that there is evidence that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is removing his forces from northern Ukraine to deploy them to the east with the aim of re-launching the battle from there.

On the other hand, the Russian presidency affirmed its confidence that the military operation in Ukraine will achieve its goals in full, expressing its hope that agreements will be reached through negotiations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said - on a program on the Russian state channel - that Putin could meet with Zelensky after reaching a clear, specific and written agreement between the two sides.

For his part, Zelensky called on Moscow to withdraw its forces completely, and to return to the positions it occupied before February 24, the date of the beginning of the Russian war on Ukraine.

In an interview with CBS, Zelensky stressed the need for a ceasefire before holding direct talks with his Russian counterpart, noting that he could discuss with him the issue of security guarantees, neutrality and Ukraine's sovereignty.

Zelensky stressed the need for dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow, considering that dialogue is the only way to prevent millions of deaths, as he put it.