War in Ukraine: civilians killed – soldiers are said to have raped children

Created: 04/10/2022, 09:12

By: Tobias Utz, Kerstin Kesselgruber, Karolin Schäfer, Isabel Wetzel, Katja Thorwarth, Tanja Banner, Lucas Maier

After the war crimes in Bucha, mass graves are also discovered elsewhere in Ukraine.

Many civilians are dead. The situation in the news ticker.

• Atrocities in Bucha:

  In the Ukraine war * the Russian army kills hundreds of people in a suburb of Kiev *.

  Children are also said to have been raped.

  Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin* denies Russia's responsibility.

• Civilians shot dead

  : according to the mayor, 132 dead were found near Kiev in the town of Makariv.

• War crimes:

  An agency in Ukraine is now collecting evidence of possible Russian war crimes.

• Against Putin propaganda:

  For the first time, a Russian medium shows images of

  war crimes

  that refute official Russian information.

• You can read

  everything about possible war crimes in the Ukraine conflict here in the news ticker.

Update from Sunday, April 10th, 2022, 8:17 a.m .:

Civilians dead again in the Ukraine war: According to Ukrainian information, at least five civilians were killed and five others injured by shelling in the Donetsk region.

The local military administration blamed Russia for this.

Russian artillery shelled settlements in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said.

At least two people were killed and one person injured.

War in Ukraine: On April 9, 2022, firefighters secure a residential building that was previously damaged in a Russian attack in Kharkiv.

© Felipe Dana/dpa

Ukraine war: Volodymyr Zelenskyj continues to rely on diplomacy

+++ 3:54 p.m .:

Despite the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukrainian cities like Bucha, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to hope for a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war.

At a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to continue peace negotiations with Moscow.

"Unfortunately, at the same time, we see preparations for an important - some say decisive - battle in the east of our state," said Zelenskyy.

His government fears another serious battle for the areas in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine War: Authorities in Ukraine collect evidence of Russian war crimes

+++ 12.51 p.m .:

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on people in the country to report suspected war crimes by Russian soldiers.

A separate website has now been set up for this purpose, Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Saturday (04/09/2022).

"The accumulated evidence of the atrocities committed by Russia's army in Ukraine will ensure that these war criminals cannot escape justice," he said.

In addition to photos, the site has so far published reports from eyewitnesses describing the murder, torture and rape of civilians.

Ukraine and many Western experts blame Russian troops for crimes in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, among other things.

The bodies of hundreds of residents were found there last weekend.

Russia denies that.

Ukraine War: Bodies of killed civilians lie in black sacks in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv.

© Valeria Ferraro/dpa

War in Ukraine: Von der Leyen shocked by possible war crimes in Bucha

+++ 11.45 a.m .:

After her visit to the Kiev suburb of Butscha, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was shocked by the actions of the Russian army there.

"My instinct says, 'If that's not a war crime, then what is a war crime?

But I am a trained doctor and lawyers must now determine this carefully,” she told journalists on Saturday morning (April 9, 2022) on the return journey from Kyiv to Poland.

Von der Leyen returned safely to Poland after her day-long visit to the Ukrainian war zone on Saturday.

In the afternoon she wanted to take part in a donor conference for Ukraine in Warsaw.

The EU Commission President met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in Kyiv and got an idea of ​​the situation in Bucha, where investigations into war crimes by the Russian army are currently underway.

Numerous bodies of murdered civilians were found there last weekend, some tied to the side of the road.

War in Ukraine: Russian soldiers are said to have raped children in Bucha

Update from Saturday, April 9th, 2022, 7:01 a.m .:

The Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, Lyudmyla Denisova, has accused Russian soldiers of raping minors.

A 14-year-old girl from the Kiev suburb of Bucha was abused by five different men and is now pregnant, Denisova wrote on Facebook.

An eleven-year-old boy, also from Butscha, was said to have been raped.

The information could not be verified at first.

Denisova appealed to the United Nations to investigate these and other war crimes.

War in Ukraine: Mayor reports over 130 civilians shot dead in Makariv

+++ 19.50 p.m .:

Not far from the Ukrainian capital Kiev, 132 civilians were found shot dead in Makariv, according to the mayor.

Most of the dead were discovered in mass graves, Wadym Tokar said on Ukrainian television on Friday.

Tokar blamed the crime on Russian soldiers who until recently occupied several locations in the region.

The information could not be verified at first.

The village, more than 50 kilometers west of Kyiv, was about 40 percent destroyed, the mayor said.

There is currently no electricity or gas supply.

War crimes in the Ukraine war: Hundreds of bodies identified in Bucha

+++ 3:03 p.m .:

In the Butscha liberated by Russian troops, 163 of the killed citizens were identified.

That's about half of the bodies found in the city so far, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said in an interview with Voice of America.

“To date we have been able to identify 163 victims.

These are citizens of our city who were cynically killed and brutally tortured by the Russians.

We know their surnames, first names, patronymics, where they lived, who they were," the mayor said.

According to him, about 320 bodies have been found in the city so far

Atrocities in Bucha: Drone footage refutes Russia's propaganda

+++ 12.45 p.m .:

The Russian exile medium Medusa has published drone footage from Butscha.

According to the report, the footage shows dead bodies on the streets at the time the Russians were stationed in the city.

These were therefore compared with satellite images and photos from Ukrainian security forces.

"In the drone shots, the dead are not only in exactly the same places as in the photos, but also in the same posture," the medium's report says.

"Russian military vehicles or soldiers can be seen in several recordings."

A devastated street in Bucha.

© Felipe Dana/AP/dpa

Update from Friday, April 8th, 2022, 7 a.m.:

The Ukrainian President Selenskyj spoke of further atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine.

In the small town of Borodjanka near Kyiv, where clean-up work was underway, it was "much more terrible" than in Bucha.

There are "even more victims" of Russian units.

Zelenskyy also asked what will happen when the world finds out what Russian units have done in the heavily contested port city of Mariupol.

There is on "almost every street" what the world saw after the withdrawal of the Russian troops in Bucha and other places around Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Russian media outlet Meduza released a video showing civilians killed in Busha during the Russian occupation.

Meduza received drone footage of the city of Bucha from March 23-30 with metadata showing dead bodies and Russian military equipment.

Atrocities in Bucha: Federal Intelligence Service intercepts radio messages from Russian soldiers

+++ 10.15 a.m .:

Details of the atrocities in Bucha are again known.

According to a report, the Federal Intelligence Service intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers in the area near Kyiv.

In it, the armed forces apparently exchange information about the situation.

Several excerpts or passages should match photographs taken on site, as reported by the news magazine Spiegel with reference to this.

In a radio message intercepted by the BND, a Russian soldier reportedly said that he and other armed forces shot a man off his bicycle.

According to the Spiegel report, the tape recordings suggest that the atrocities in Bucha were the result of coordinated military measures and not the actions of desperate individuals.

The BND also has other radio messages that point to similar massacres and war crimes in other places.

These cannot yet be localized.

Recently it became known that Russian troops have devastated another city near Kyiv in addition to Butscha (see update from 9 a.m.).

Update from Thursday, April 7th, 2022, 6:15 a.m .:

Russia could be excluded from the UN Human Rights Council.

Appropriate demands were submitted by Great Britain* and the USA*, as reported by afp.

The next session of the United Nations General Assembly will take place on Thursday (April 7th, 2022) at 10:00 a.m. local time in New York (4:00 p.m. CEST).

A two-thirds majority of the 193 UN member states is required for an exclusion from the UN Human Rights Council, i.e. 129 votes.

The background to the possible exclusion are the atrocities against civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha.

Ukraine War: Atrocities in Bucha – China speaks out

+++ 3.30 p.m .:

For the first time, China has commented on the massacre in the Ukrainian Bucha.

Beijing's Ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, said Tuesday at the United Nations Security Council: "The reports and images of the deaths of civilians in Bucha are deeply disturbing." support".

Zhang called "attacks on civilians unacceptable," but said "all sides must exercise restraint and avoid baseless allegations" until "the big picture" is clear.

Zhang avoided mentioning or even condemning Russia in connection with the massacre.

Ukraine War: Atrocities in Bucha - Pope is dismayed

+++ 1.45 p.m .:

The behavior of the Russian army is also criticized from Rome.

Pope Francis was dismayed and called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine.

“More and more atrocities are happening, even against civilians, women and children.

They are victims whose innocent blood cries out and begs to heaven," the pontiff said in a speech on Wednesday.

In solidarity with Ukraine, the Pope held up a Ukrainian flag, which the Vatican says is from Bucha.

+++ 12.15 p.m .:

According to eyewitness reports from Bucha, the war crimes there are said to have been committed primarily by older soldiers who had posed as members of the Russian secret service FSB*.

These were well-equipped, older soldiers who had replaced the younger soldiers who had previously been deployed.

"They were brutal.

You abused everyone.

And then the massacres began,” an eyewitness told AFP.

Atrocities in Bucha: Mayor witnessed killing of civilians

+++ 9:00 a.m .:

As the BBC reports, the mayor of Bucha estimates that 320 civilians were killed by Russian forces.

Anatoly Fedoruk said in a TV interview on Tuesday (April 5, 2022) that he personally witnessed the murder of several residents of the city by Russian forces during its occupation.

Update from Wednesday, April 6th, 2022, 7:15 a.m .:

During the night, the New York Times published video recordings that it verified, which are said to prove fatal shots by Russian soldiers at a civilian in Bucha.

The Ukrainian video comes from the end of February - shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

According to local media, the military administration of Homostel - a neighboring town of Bucha - said around 400 residents were missing after the Russian occupation.

Several residents of Hostomel were also found in Bucha.

From the US government's perspective, the Bucha atrocities may be just "the tip of the iceberg."

Atrocities in Bucha: Bundestag and NATO announce further sanctions

+++ 8:52 p.m .:

The Bundestag and the foreign ministers of the NATO countries have announced that they will discuss the atrocities committed against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and reactions to them on Wednesday (April 6th, 2022).

The current hour was requested by the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP *.

Hundreds of bodies were discovered in Butscha over the weekend.

Ukraine blames Russian troops, who had withdrawn a few days earlier, for the massacre.

Moscow denies the allegations.

The German government sees the actions as a war crime by the Russian armed forces and is committed to ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.

In addition to tightening EU sanctions, arms deliveries to Ukraine are also to be expanded.

+++ 12.00 p.m .:

In Russia, the “military operation” in Ukraine, in particular the “cleansing” of places like Bucha, is celebrated by the media.

For example, what the Russian embassy in Germany has already announced is repeated.

The allegations of alleged war crimes are pure "accusations" (see update from 11.15 a.m.).

Meanwhile, the Russian military handed out medals “for bravery” to troops stationed in Bucha.*

Ukraine war: Atrocities in Bucha - torture chamber discovered

+++ 6.30 a.m .:

As the news portal Kyiv Independent reports, Russian torture chambers were discovered in the basement of the children’s healing center in Bucha.

The first reports on this were already circulating on Monday afternoon (see update from April 4th, 2022, 4.45 p.m.).

Accordingly, the bodies of five murdered men were found in the basement.

Their hands were tied and they appear to have been tortured.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine is cited as a source.

Update from Tuesday, April 5th, 2022, 3:25 a.m .:

US satellite images published on Monday (April 4th, 2022) confirm that some of the bodies found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha were already lying there before the Russian troops withdrew.

The "high-resolution" images "confirm recent videos and photos on social media showing bodies that have been lying in the streets for weeks," a spokesman for US satellite imaging company Maxar Technologies said.

In mid-March, satellite imagery of a street in Bucha showed several bodies of suspected civilians lying on or near the road.

Several bodies were found here by Ukrainian officials after Russian troops withdrew in early April.

AFP photographers saw around 20 bodies in civilian clothes during a visit last Saturday - some with their hands tied.

War in Ukraine: Atrocities in Butscha – SPD leader Klingbeil rejects embargo

+++ 6.25 a.m

.: SPD leader Lars Klingbeil continues to reject an immediate stop to energy imports from Russia even after the known killings of civilians in the Ukrainian Bucha.

Despite the terrible pictures, he thinks "an immediate gas embargo is wrong for many reasons," he said on Sunday evening on the ARD program "Anne Will".* The Bavarian Prime Minister, CSU boss Markus Söder, shared this position there and pointed out that Russia is already looking for other customers, such as India.

“We turn off the gas tap a little more every day,” explained Klingbeil.

To make a complete stop from one day to the next, "we have to talk about the consequences that this would have for us in Germany, despite all the brutality of these pictures and all the emotionality that I also have."

Atrocities in Bucha: Selenskyi invites Angela Merkel

Update from Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, 8:00 p.m .:

After hundreds of bodies were found in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj invited the former Chancellor Angela Merkel * to a trip to the city.

In the Kiev suburb, Merkel - like former French President Nicolas Sarkozy - could get an idea of ​​their failed Russia policy in recent years, Zelensky said in a video message.

In 2008, the NATO states, including Germany, promised Ukraine membership, but then backed down out of consideration for Russia, according to Zelensky.

Merkel was Chancellor from 2005 to 2021.

"I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years," said Zelenskyy.

"You will see the tortured Ukrainians with your own eyes."

Atrocities in Bucha: Selenskyj speaks of "genocide", Scholz calls for clarification

First report from Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, 2:30 p.m.:

Kiev – The Ukraine war brings suffering, destruction and death.

The extent of the atrocities was most recently demonstrated in Bucha, a Ukrainian city about 25 kilometers north-west of the capital Kyiv*.

The dramatic reports caused international horror.

The Russian military has withdrawn from the Kyiv region in recent days.

According to Ukrainian data, the entire region was recaptured.

What remained, however, were streets strewn with corpses and complete destruction.

According to information from the Ukrainian authorities, almost 300 bodies were found that had to be buried in mass graves.

The three city cemeteries are still in the area of ​​the Russian armed forces.

EU Council President Charles Michel was "shocked" by pictures from the commuter city on Sunday (April 3rd, 2022).

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock* (Greens*) announced tougher sanctions against Russia* and further support for the Ukrainian military.

The pictures of the "unbridled violence" from Butscha were "intolerable," wrote the Green politician on the short message service Twitter.

According to the reports from Butscha, Chancellor Olaf Scholz* (SPD*) has demanded an investigation into "crimes committed by the Russian military".

The crimes would have to be "ruthlessly" cleared up, Scholz said on Sunday in Berlin.

In addition, the perpetrators and their clients "must be consistently held accountable".

(kas/tab/ktho/tu/kke with dpa/AFP)