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Grave of a Ukrainian killed in Bucha
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
In late March, Bucha became a symbol of Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
A good month after the start of the illegal invasion, Russian troops had withdrawn from the town near Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers discovered mass graves with civilians, dozens of dead people were still lying on the streets, their hands tied behind their backs.
The atrocities drew the international community together, but Russia itself has denied war crimes in the area.
Now a new video published by the New York Times is said to show Russian soldiers leading several men to an execution.
The US newspaper dates the video to March 4, when Russian troops were in control of Bucha.
The recording was made from a residential building.
You can see Russian vehicles with the "Z" sprayed on and Russian soldiers leading away a total of nine men dressed in civilian clothes.
The men crouch, protectively holding their hands over their heads.
"Go right, bitch," a soldier commands.
Only the Russian soldiers are returning
The recording ends with the men being led into a backyard a good 270 meters away.
The New York Times had eight witnesses confirm that shots were fired in the backyard and only the Russian soldiers returned.
Drone footage taken shortly afterwards shows the bodies of nine men.
They wear the same clothes as the abducted men in the previous video.
The men also show photos from Bucha from the beginning of April, when the town is back in Ukrainian hands.
They lay in the backyard all month.
The New York Times spent several weeks verifying the identities of those killed.
"They were husbands and fathers, shopkeepers and factory workers who lived normal lives before the war." Almost all volunteered to defend their hometown after the Russian attack.
"Almost all of them lived within walking distance of the backyard where their bodies will later lie," the newspaper continues.
Three months after the beginning of the war, there are numerous other places in Ukraine besides Bucha where mass graves were discovered and war crimes are said to have been committed.
Places like Irpin, Borodyanka and Gostomel.
Human rights activists and the media have documented dozens of testimonies.
They report rapes, torture and executions by Russian soldiers.
Shots at playing children
Recently, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch also reported on war crimes in north-eastern Ukraine.
According to their own statements, the human rights activists found evidence of killings, unlawful detention under inhumane conditions, torture and missing persons at 17 locations.
"The numerous atrocities committed by Russian troops who occupied parts of north-eastern Ukraine at the beginning of the war are heinous, unlawful and cruel," said the organization's Europe and Central Asia director Giorgi Gogia.
A total of 65 survivors, family members and other witnesses were interviewed between April 10 and May 10 for the report.
People were shot for possessing working cell phones, old military uniforms or suspected of having been in the Ukrainian military.
Before they left, Russian soldiers had killed mostly men, some of them at random.
It was even shot at playing children.
Those arrested had to endure in a confined space in cold cellars, sometimes without food.
Buckets served as toilets.
The surviving victims described torture with electric batons and mock executions.
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