Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 with hundreds of thousands of troops.
They came from all directions, but more than a month later, Vladimir Putin’s forces are retreating from Kiev and focusing their attention on the south and the east of Ukraine.
As they pull out to reposition, the war crimes of these troops are being exposed. The world had heard horror stories from Mariupol, but now villages such as Bucha and Motyzhyn are being discovered full of dead civilians.
These people weren’t just killed in the fog of war or mistaken airstrikes. The majority appear to have been executed on purpose.
Russia’s Targeted Murders
Take the murder of the mayor of Motyzhyn, Olga Sukhenko.
She was brutally murdered, as well as her husband Igor and her boy Alex when the Russians held the town. Police sweeping the scene after Russia’s withdrawal have also found bodies of innocent civilians around the town, including dumped into wells.
The mayor and her family were pushed into a hole in the ground in the backyard of what had been their house.
According to reports, Sukhenko and her family were abducted by Russia on March 25 until being found recently once Russian troops pulled out. It appears that Russians wanted to negotiate and get their approval for turning Motyzhyn over to their control, but the mayor didn’t agree.
So they killed her and her family, then dumped them in a hole in the ground.
This is far from a rare occurrence. As Russia pulls back, horrific war crimes are being uncovered, including over 410 bodies of intentionally-shot civilians in towns around Kiev like Bucha.
As they left the towns to pull further east, the Russians also rigged up corpses with explosives and detonation triggers to make it much harder for Ukrainians to respond and try to kill some along the way.
Liberated Bucha near Kyiv. Horrible evidence of russian war crimes committed during the occupation of the city.
Never forget.
Never forgive.#BuchaMassacre#RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/ec03jui5AH— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 3, 2022
Horrific Details Emerge
Videos from the scenes of these massacres show men with their hands tied behind their backs and shot down.
Other video evidence shows basements full of individuals who had their knees shot out to cause maximum pain and then were shot in the head along the wall.
This includes children who were cut up and tortured, as well as women who were violently gang-raped, prior to being murdered. Over 300 bodies were found in Bucha alone, in scenes that look even worse than the actions of terrorist groups like ISIS.
As they pulled out from these warzones, Russian troops also rigged up the corpses as mentioned. It wasn’t just one or two mines, either.
The town of Dmytrivka was discovered with over 1,500 detonation charges around bodies. There were mines everywhere in the town.
Russia says these bodies are fake. These war crimes must be prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/dKnnCaKxe5
— Travis Hepburn (@TravisHepburn) April 3, 2022
Russia Responds
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “genocide” and said Putin needs to pay. Russia responded by saying the footage is fake.
According to top Russian officials, the bodies have been planted and this is a false flag operation to get the West to intervene on behalf of Ukraine.
Similar claims have been made by Russia in the past and by pro-Russian forces, such as Serbian war criminals and their supporters, who still claim to this day that the Srebrenica Massacre never happened.
