Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has named 10 Russian soldiers allegedly involved in human rights abuses during Bucha’s one-month occupation.
Irina Venediktova also told German television that Ukrainian investigators had identified “more than 8,000 cases” of alleged war crimes since Russia’s invasion, including charges of “killing civilians, bombing civilian infrastructure, torture” and “sexual crimes.”
Her comments came as the International Criminal Court (ICC) stepped up its investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine since the start of the war. The Dutch government will “soon” send a team of “several dozen” criminalists to Ukraine on behalf of the International Criminal Court to gather evidence of human rights abuses, the ANP news agency reported on Thursday.
The withdrawal of Russian forces from Kyiv in early April left horrific evidence of atrocities strewn through the region’s suburbs and cities, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes were found in the streets or buried in shallow graves.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Venediktov identified 10 soldiers – two sergeants, four corporals and four privates – who she said were all “involved in the torture of civilians” during the brutal occupation of Bucha, a small town of 28.5 miles north-west of Kyiv.
Venediktov said the soldiers were part of the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade, a unit based in the Khabarovsk region, on the Pacific coast of Russia’s Far East.
“During the occupation of Bucha, they took unarmed civilians hostage, killed them with hunger and thirst, and kept them on their knees with their hands tied and their eyes closed. [The hostages] they were mocked and beaten with fists and rifle butts. They were beaten for information about the location of [Ukrainian] “armed forces … and some have been tortured for no reason,” she wrote.
Venediktov called on the public to help gather evidence and said Ukrainian prosecutors and police are now investigating whether any of the men were also involved in the killings.
Ukraine, along with a number of Western countries and human rights organizations, has accused Russian forces of killing civilians in Bucha without hindrance.
Stanislav Kozinchuk, deputy head of the Kyiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office, said investigators are working with victims to identify perpetrators of human rights abuses.
“Our suspects are military from the Russian Federation,” he said. “We understand who was there, what happened, and now we are looking at those military units that took part in the killings.
Some of the soldiers involved have already been redeployed to fight in eastern Ukraine, he said.
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said that “Russian forces committed a number of obvious war crimes during the occupation” of the city, adding that investigators had found extensive evidence of executions, other illegal killings, enforced disappearances and torture. constituted war crimes and potential crimes against humanity. “
The Guardian reports that dozens of civilians killed during the Russian occupation of Bucha were killed by small metal arrows from projectiles fired by Russian artillery.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry identified Russia’s 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade as the unit that occupied Bucha, publishing the names, titles and passport details of all soldiers.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged human rights abuses, while Russian state television has broadcast reports alleging that images of dead civilians in Bucha were staged or the result of crimes committed by Ukrainian forces.
During a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “Russian forces have no ties to Bucha.”
“We know who did it. “We know who prepared this provocation … We know who they are,” Putin added, without elaborating.
Earlier this month, Putin awarded the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade the honorary title of Guardsman and praised the unit for “great heroism and courage.”
“This high award recognizes your special merits, great heroism and courage in defending your Fatherland and in defending Russia’s sovereignty and national interests,” Putin said in a statement.
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