The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, went on Monday to Boutcha, a town near kyiv recently taken over by Ukrainian troops, where he denounced the abuses of the Russian army, "war crimes" which he also referred to as "genocide".
Boutcha, a small town northwest of kyiv, was occupied by the Russian army on February 27, remaining inaccessible for more than a month.
On Saturday, the bodies of at least 22 people wearing civilian clothes were found on the streets of the city.
According to the mayor, Anatoly Fedorouk, nearly 300 people were buried in "mass graves".
The images and information from Boutcha caused an international outcry and the promise of new sanctions against Russia.
Directed by:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
In improvised mass graves or in the middle of the streets, the corpses are everywhere in the Ukrainian city of Boutcha, northwest of kyiv.
Ukraine announced that Boutcha had been "liberated", but this town was devastated by fighting.
There are gaping holes caused by shells in apartment buildings, bridges and many car wrecks.
Ukrainian forces were only able to fully enter Boutcha a day or two ago, which had been inaccessible for almost a month and deprived of all assistance.
“In some streets, we see 15 to 20 corpses on the ground”, but “I cannot say how many there are still in the courtyards, behind the palisades”, declared the mayor of the city, on April 2.
The horrors of war have become so commonplace in Boutcha that the last inhabitants pass by the bodies, as if the scene had become habitual.
On Saturday, the bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found lying on a city street.
Some had their hands tied and the bodies were scattered for several hundred meters.
The bodies of 57 people were found in a mass grave.
Several were in black body bags, others were in civilian clothes.
In total, nearly 300 people had to be buried "in mass graves".
In recent days, Russian forces have withdrawn from several localities near the capital after the failure of their attempt to encircle it.
They are operating a "rapid withdrawal" from the kyiv and Cherniguiv regions in northern Ukraine, with the aim of redeploying to the east and south, the Ukrainian government said on Saturday.
The localities of “Irpin, Boutcha, Gostomel and the entire kyiv region have been liberated from the invader”, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Saturday.
The Ukrainian soldiers present in Boutcha distributed aid to the population for the first time since this city returned to government control.
According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, the lifeless bodies of 410 civilians were found in the territories of the Kyiv region recently recaptured from Russian troops.
On Sunday, Moscow denied any extortion by him.
"During the period when this locality was under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident suffered violent actions," the Russian Defense Ministry said, claiming that the images of dead bodies were "a new production of the kyiv regime for the Western media".
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said she was "horrified" on Monday by the images of the bodies in the Ukrainian city.
The images of dozens of corpses in mass graves or littering the streets around the Ukrainian capital this weekend, following the Russian withdrawal, revolted the world.
The EU is ready to send teams of investigators to Ukraine to help collect evidence on war crimes, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Boutcha on Monday where he denounced the abuses of the Russian army, "war crimes" which will be "recognized as genocide".
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