France spoke on Sunday April 3 of probable “war crimes” in Boutcha, a town northwest of kyiv, where AFP saw corpses on a street on Saturday and where nearly 300 people were buried in mass graves, according to Ukrainian authorities. “The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes”claimed Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, after the images “unsustainable” of civilians killed in Boutcha.
The images reaching us from Boutcha, a liberated town near kyiv, are unbearable. In the streets, hundreds of cowardly murdered civilians. My compassion for the victims, my solidarity with the Ukrainians. The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 3, 2022
In a press release, Jean-Yves Le Drian has “condemned in the strongest possible terms such acts which constitute, if confirmed, war crimes”. The French Foreign Minister says he is working, in conjunction with his “partners”in order to “that these acts do not go unpunished and that those responsible are tried and condemned”.
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IUkraine has accused the Russian army of committing a “genocide”, in the words of Volodymyr Zelensky to the American channel CBS. In Ukraine, “we have more than 100 nationalities. It is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities”was alarmed the Ukrainian president.
“We found mass graves. We found people with their hands and legs tied up (…) and with gunshots, bullet holes, in the back of their heads”described for the BBC the spokesman of the Ukrainian president, Serguiï Nikiforovil, affirming that it was a question “clearly civilians”.
Several European countries have condemned these “massive abuses committed by Russian forces in Ukrainian cities”, as French diplomacy describes them. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said to herself “horrified by the atrocities in Boutcha and other towns” and demanded a “war crimes investigation”. “This terrible war crime cannot go unanswered”added the German Minister of Economy, Robert Habeckau.
“I think a strengthening of sanctions is indicated. This is what we are preparing with our EU partners.”
Robert Habeckau, German Economy Ministerquoted by AFP
On Twitter, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, also said “shocked by the haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in the liberated region of kyiv”. “The EU is helping Ukraine and NGOs to gather the necessary evidence for prosecution in international courts”, he noted. And to add: “More EU sanctions and aid are on the way.”
“These images are a punch in the stomach”reacted the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, on the CNN channel, recalling having warned “before Russia’s aggression” that she was in danger of “commit atrocities”.
“We can’t normalize this.”
Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of Stateon CNN
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, considered that the violence in Boutcha was “horrible”denouncing a “unprecedented brutality in Europe for decades”. “It is absolutely unacceptable that civilians are being targeted and killed”he said, still on the American channel.
Asked about the departure of Russian forces from the kyiv region, which Ukrainian forces said they had taken over, he was cautious: “We must not be too optimistic” because “We fear a potential increase in attacks, especially in the south and east of the country”.