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Scene from Bucha, early March 2022
Photo: Serhii Nuzhnenko / dpa
The U.S. government imposes travel bans on two Russian military officers for involvement in "serious human rights violations." On the one hand, the measure concerns Asatbek Omurbekov, who is known as the "butcher of Bucha," the US State Department announced on Monday.
The U.S. government accuses him of "extrajudicial killings of unarmed Ukrainian civilians" in the village of Andriyivka in eastern Ukraine. He also led his unit to Bucha, where it "killed, beaten, dismembered, burned civilians and carried out mock executions" in early March 2022.
The European Union had already imposed sanctions on Omurbekov for his "direct responsibility for killings, rapes and torture" in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
The U.S. government is adding Guard Corporal Daniil Frolkin to the sanctions list because of the killings in Andriyivka. "The reports that Omurbekov and Frolkin were involved in serious human rights violations, as documented by non-governmental organizations and independent investigations, are serious and credible," the U.S. State Department said.
Bucha is compared to Srebrenica
As a result of the sanctions, Omurbekov, Frolkin and their immediate family members will no longer be able to enter the United States. The U.S. government has imposed numerous sanctions on Moscow, Russian institutions or allies of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Among them is the Russian military unit, which is blamed for the atrocities in Bucha.
Ukrainian authorities spoke of 410 civilians who are said to have been murdered by Russian soldiers in the city of 40,000 inhabitants. Bucha is already mentioned in the same row as Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb militias slaughtered 28,8000 men and boys there <> years ago. At least the form of unbridled violence against civilians seems to be comparable.
jok/dpa