Joining world leaders calling for full investigation
Portugal’s president Marcelo and the prime minister António Costa have joined world leaders in condemning the atrocities uncovered by Ukrainian soldiers as they ‘recovered’ Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv after it had been taken by Russian forces.
Marcelo has called the horrors splashed over the world’s media over the weekend “another intolerable violation of human rights”, while the PM has simply condemned what he called “barbaric atrocities”.
According to Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs this was “the worst massacre in Europe since the 2nd World War”, for which he appeals for the court of international justice to move in and document what has taken place.
The EU meantime is preparing to introduce more sanctions against Moscow.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, has tweeted: “Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv liberated region… Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. EU is assisting Ukraine & NGOs in gathering of necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts.”
Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, said soldiers who had retaken Bucha from Russian forces reported “numerous civilians shot dead”.
“Some of (the) victims have their hands tied. Innocent victims. They didn’t deserve that.”
In the nearby village of Motyzhyn, Russian soldiers also “did terrible things”, said the minister, adding: “their cruelty is limitless. Before Ukrainian troops arrived, (the) Russian army killed as many civilians as possible. Inhuman. Terrible. Speechless.”
Elsewhere, France’s president Macron has described the images as “unbearable” expressing “compassion” to the “hundreds of citizens cowardly assassinated”.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has called them “terrible and grisly”.
No matter what the arguments may be over what led up to this conflict, there is no defence for the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of civilians.
Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã reports that the Ukraine government has said “at least two Russian soldiers have died after eating ‘poisoned pasties’ offered by Ukrainian townsfolk”.
Russian defence minister Sergei Lavrov meantime has said the whole situation in Bucha has been “staged”.
