Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swore on Friday to defeat “Russian evil” on the first anniversary of the Russian withdrawal from Boutcha, a martyred city that has become a crying symbol of “the atrocities” attributed to Moscow troops.
For his part, Vladimir Putin signed a decree validating a new foreign policy doctrine which, according to his head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, underlines “the existential nature of Western threats” aimed at Russia.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, for his part denounced from Geneva serious human rights violations that had become “scandalously routine” thirteen months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president has, since Boutcha, promised victory to his people after having sworn earlier in the day to “punish all the culprits” of the massacre.
“We are going to win for sure, the Russian evil will fall, right here in Ukraine and will not be able to get up again”, he hammered from this suburb of Kiev in front of the Croatian prime ministers Andrej Plenkovic, Slovak Eduard Heger, Slovenian Robert Golob, and Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
On March 31, 2022, the Russian army withdrew from the kyiv region, a month after launching the invasion of the country on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Two days after the withdrawal, the massacre was known.
AFP journalists discovered in Boutcha on April 2 charred carcasses of vehicles, destroyed houses and above all, scattered over several hundred meters, the bodies of twenty men in civilian clothes, one of whom had his hands tied in the back.
These scenes shocked the whole world, kyiv and Westerners denouncing summary executions of civilians. The Kremlin denies any involvement and evokes a staging.
During his visit to the site two days after the discovery, President Zelensky, visibly upset, had denounced “war crimes” which will be “recognized by the world as genocide”.
“Keep on living”
Today, Ukraine estimates that “more than 1,400” civilians died in the Boutcha district during the occupation, including 637 in the city itself.
AFP journalists noted Thursday reconstruction work in this city which had 37,000 inhabitants before the war.
Several dozen workers are busy in the middle of diggers, backhoes and dump trucks, to rebuild the houses and redo the road.
If the trauma remains present, residents interviewed by AFP recognized that the “pain is easing”, because we must “continue to live”.
Without forgetting the dead, it is important to live “in the future”, underlines the archpriest Andriï, who manages the local Orthodox parish.
“We must not only win, defeat the occupiers, […] the criminals must be condemned, the evil must be punished,” he said.
Russian forces have been accused of multiple abuses by Ukrainian authorities after the discovery of hundreds of bodies in Boutcha and other towns, graves near Izium (east) or “torture rooms” in recaptured towns, according to Kyiv.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin in March for the “deportation” of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Russia continues to deny any abuse by its forces.
And on Friday, the Russian president adopted a new diplomatic doctrine, due to “upheavals on the international scene” due to the war.
Its head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, underlined “the existential nature of Western threats”, accusing the United States and its allies of waging a “hybrid war” against Moscow.
“The provisions of the doctrine provide for the systematic and, if necessary, severe suppression of anti-Russian measures by unfriendly countries,” Lavrov insisted, presenting the 42-page document during a teleconference of the Russian Security Council chaired by Mr. Cheese fries.
Lukashenko between demand for peace and threat
The Belarusian president, who lent Russia his territory to invade Ukraine, wanted to pose as a peacemaker on Friday, calling on the belligerents for negotiations and a truce. A proposal rejected by Russia.
But Alexander Lukashenko also went there with his threat against the West, by proposing to welcome Russian strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Mr. Lukashenko, who judges the West and Ukraine responsible for the conflict, also said he feared a “nuclear” war, when he had already agreed to the deployment of Russian “tactical” nuclear weapons in his country.
“Because of the United States and its satellites, an all-out war has been unleashed,” he said, saying that “nuclear fires are lurking on the horizon.”
On the front, the fighting is still raging above all in the East, around Bakhmout, which the Russians have been trying to take for months at the cost of colossal losses.
Kiev admitted Thursday that it now controls only a third, but hopes the damage inflicted on Moscow’s forces will weaken Russian lines when the Ukrainian army launches the counter-offensive it is preparing, awaiting new weapons. Western.