Farewell with Ukrainian photojournalist Max Levin in Kyiv. He disappeared on March 13 and was found killed because of two shots from Russian occupiers. April 5. Photo By Babel (war.ukraine.ua)
Kyiv/Maryland/Brussels: The Security Service of Ukraine today claimed it received intercepts that confirm criminal orders by the Russians to shoot Ukrainian civilians. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg too made a statement claiming that “all sources confirm this” that the Russian military committed mass murders and crimes in the Ukrainian territory they occupied.
Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmila Denisova, said today that Children under the age of 10 with signs of rape and torture were found murdered in the Russian-liberated town of Irpen. The Eastern Operational and Territorial Association of the National Guard of Ukraine claimed that the Russians used phosphorus and thermobaric ammunition in the Kharkiv region during the fighting for Malaya Rogan. Moreover, the Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Gayday claimed that in Rubizhne, Luhansk region, the Russians hit a cistern with nitric acid, which is dangerous when inhaled, swallowed, and when it comes into contact with skin and mucous membranes.
The United States Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, said in Maryland that the US had already said before the aggression that it anticipated that if it went forward, there would be atrocities committed.
“Information that we’ve seen going into the aggression suggested that this would be part of the Russian campaign,” he said, adding that “Horrifically, tragically, what we’re seeing in Bucha and in other places supports that.” He said this reinforced the USA’s determination and the determination of countries around the world “to make sure that one way or another, one day or another”, there is accountability for those who committed these acts, for those who ordered them.
“As the Russian tide is receding from parts of Ukraine, the world is seeing the death and destruction left in its wake, and we’re seeing in particular the horror that’s been left behind in Bucha, something that is touching people literally around the world,” he told reporters today before departing at Joint Base Andrews, a military facility located in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Also read: Bucha Massacre: Biden calls Putin a war criminal, vows more sanctions against Russia
Yesterday Russia had retorted, claiming Ukraine and the West “staged” the massacre.
However, Blinken said today that what was seen in Bucha was not the random act of rogue unit but a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”. Claiming that the reports were “more than credible”, and that the evidence was there for the world to see, he though said that in all of these instances, “there’s a very important effort to put the evidence together, to compile it, to document it, to support the different investigations that are going on”.
“That’s what we’re doing. That’s what others are doing. This will play out over time,” he said.
To a question on whether the U.S. had evidence linking senior Russian officials in Moscow to either ordering or knowledge of the acts being committed in Ukraine, Blinken said, “We’re working, as are others, to put the evidence together to support the efforts of the Ukrainian prosecutor general, to support the efforts of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry that we helped establish, marshaling all of this, putting all of this together”.
Blinken headed off to Brussels for a meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, and for a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers , “all of which will go to supporting the efforts that – accountability and support for Ukraine, increase pressure on Russia”.
Meanwhile, the European Union imposed a coal embargo and other sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Andriy Yermak, the Head of the Office of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, disclosed, EU was still not ready to impose an oil embargo.
– global bihari bureau
