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The bodies of more than 900 civilians have been found in the region around the Ukrainian capital since Russia’s withdrawal – most of them fatally shot, police said on Friday, showing many people were “simply executed”.
The staggering number came shortly after Russia’s defense ministry promised to step up missile attacks on Kyiv in response to alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. The ominous warning follows the stunning loss of Moscow’s flagship in the Black Sea, which a senior US defense official said on Friday had indeed been hit by at least one Ukrainian missile.
Amid threats, Moscow has continued preparations for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine. Fighting continued in the shattered southern port city of Mariupol, where locals said they saw Russian troops dig up bodies. In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, seven people were killed in a shelling of a residential area, including a 7-month-old child, and 34 were injured, according to District Governor Oleh Sinehubov.
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A cat rests in the grave of Lyudmila Kononuchenko, 51, who was buried by family and friends after being hit by a rocket on March 23 during the war with Russia, in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. Kononuchenko’s body was exhumed from her yard and taken to the morgue for analysis. (AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd)
Around Kyiv, Andriy Nebitov, head of the capital’s regional police, said the bodies had been abandoned on the streets or temporarily buried. He quoted police as saying that 95% had died from gunshot wounds.
“Therefore, we understand that during the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets,” Nebitov said.
More and more bodies are being found every day under rubble and in mass graves, he added, with the largest number found in Bucha, where more than 350 were found.
According to Nebitov, utility workers have collected and buried bodies in the Kyiv suburbs while it remains under Russian control. Russian troops, he added, are “tracking” people who express strong pro-Ukrainian views.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Russian troops occupying parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south of terrorizing civilians and persecuting anyone who has served in Ukraine’s army or government.
Relatives mourn death of Alexander Mozhaiko, 31, a territorial defense soldier who was killed by the Russian army on March 5 during his funeral in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd)
“The occupiers think it will be easier for them to control this territory. But they are very wrong. “They are deluding themselves,” Zelenski said. “Russia’s problem is that it has not been accepted – and will never be accepted – by the entire Ukrainian people. Russia has lost Ukraine forever.”
In his evening video address to the nation, Zelenski also said he had discussed the fate of Mariupol with senior military and intelligence officials. He said he could not offer details, “but we are doing everything we can to save our people.”
Zelensky said peace and “how many more Ukrainian occupiers have time to kill” depend on Ukraine receiving more external support and reiterating calls for more and faster military aid, as well as an oil embargo against Russia.
Armed servicemen of the Donetsk People’s Republic militia watch a photographer carry weapons in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged by Russian troops and forces from self-proclaimed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine for more than six weeks. (AP Photo / Alexey Alexandrov)
More violence can be expected for Kyiv after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of injuring seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings by air strikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another Russian border region also announced Ukrainian shelling on Thursday.
“The number and scale of missile attacks on sites in Kyiv will increase in response to the Kiev nationalist regime, which carries out all kinds of terrorist attacks or sabotage on Russian territory,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Russia is using missiles to destroy a facility to repair and manufacture missile systems in Kyiv, Konashenkov said.
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Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that any targets have been struck in Russia, and the reports cannot be independently verified.
However, Ukrainian authorities said the forces had fired missiles at a key Russian warship. A senior U.S. defense official has backed the claim, saying the United States now believes Moscow was hit by at least one Neptune anti-ship missile, and possibly two. The officer speaks on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment.
Moscow, named after the Russian capital, sank while being towed to the port on Thursday after severe damage. Although Moscow did not acknowledge any attack, saying only that the fire caused an explosion of ammunition on board, the loss of the ship was an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
The sinking reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea, although military analysts disagree on the significance of the event for the course of the war. In any case, the loss was seen as emblematic of Moscow’s fate in an eight-week invasion that is widely seen as a historic mistake following the withdrawal from the Kiev region and much of northern Ukraine.
The “flagship” Russian warship is a worthy place to dive. Now we have another place to dive in the Black Sea. We will definitely visit the remains after our victory in the war, “Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov tweeted.
Russia’s warning of renewed air strikes has not prevented Kyiv residents from taking advantage of a sunny and slightly warmer spring Friday as the weekend draws to a close. More people than usual were on the street, walking dogs, riding electric scooters and walking hand in hand.
In a central park, a small group of people, including a woman wearing a Ukrainian flag, danced to the music of a portable speaker.
Such incredible signs of pre-war life reappeared in the capital after Russian troops failed to capture the city and withdrew to focus on eastern Ukraine, leaving behind evidence of possible war crimes. But the renewed bombing could mean a return to the steady howls of air raid sirens heard in the early days of the invasion and to the dreaded nights hidden in subway stations.
In Mariupol, the city council said on Friday that locals said they had seen Russian soldiers dig up bodies buried in residential yards and prevent new burials of “people killed by them”.
“Why the exhumation is taking place and where the bodies will be taken is unknown,” the council told the Telegram news app.
Fighting continued in industrial zones and the port, and Russia is using a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber for the first time to attack the city, said Alexander Motuzyanik, a spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry.
Mariupol has been blocked by Russian forces since the first days of the invasion, and a dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders have opposed a siege that has cost the horrific cost of trapped and starving civilians.
This week, the mayor said the death toll in the city could exceed 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials said they expected to find evidence in Mariupol of atrocities such as those found in Bucha and other cities outside Kyiv.
The capture of Mariupol will allow Russian forces in the south, which have risen through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to connect fully with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial center and the target of the impending offensive.
It is uncertain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in Donbass since 2014, the same year that Russia took over Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has recognized the independence of two rebel-held areas in the region.
Also Friday, a Russian rocket struck an airport in the central city of Alexandria at night, Mayor Sergei Kuzmenko said on Facebook. He did not mention any casualties.
A Ukrainian regional envoy said seven people were killed and 27 wounded when Russian forces fired on civilian buses in the village of Borovaya, near Kharkiv. The claim cannot be verified independently.
Dmitry Chubenko, a spokesman for the district prosecutor’s office, told the news website Suspilne that authorities had launched criminal proceedings on suspicion of “violation of the laws or customs of war combined with premeditated murder.”
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Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes in the Kharkiv region “liquidated a group of mercenaries from a Polish private military company” of up to 30 people and “liberated” an iron and steel factory in Mariupol. Allegations cannot be verified independently.
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