The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the country’s foreign intelligence service had intercepted radio messages from Russian military sources discussing the killing of civilians in Bucha. “It is true that the federal government has evidence of Russian crime in Bucha,” the source said. “However, these findings in Bucha refer to satellite imagery. Broadcasts can not be clearly assigned to Bucha.” The source did not provide further details. He said there was no indication of an order from the Russian Armed Forces General Staff regarding Boutsas. The Associated Press reported that in a radio message, a Russian soldier informs another how he shot a man on a bicycle. In another message, a speaker reportedly recounted how the Russian army interrogated enemy soldiers before killing them. A dead citizen with his hands tied behind his back is lying on the ground in Bucha. (Efrem Lukatsky / The Associated Press)
Bucha, about 40 kilometers northwest of Kiev, was occupied by Russian troops for more than a month after their invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Ukrainian officials said earlier this week that the bodies of 410 civilians had been found in cities around the capital. Volunteers have spent days collecting the bodies, and more are being collected Thursday in Bucha. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba warned on Thursday that despite the recent Russian withdrawal, the invasion was not over and called for “weapons, weapons and ammunition” from NATO to counter the impending attack in the east. The nations of the Western Alliance have agreed to increase their arms supplies, prompted by reports of atrocities by Russian forces in areas around Kyiv. Western allies also stepped up economic sanctions targeting Moscow on Thursday, including a European Union ban on Russian coal imports. Kuleba encouraged Western countries to continue to burden Russia, pointing out that any abandonment would eventually lead to more suffering for Ukrainians. “How many Buchas must be made to impose sanctions?” Kuleba asked reporters on Thursday. “How many children, women, men must die – innocent lives must be lost – to understand that you can not allow the fatigue of sanctions, as we can not allow the fight against fatigue?” A mass grave in Bucha. Ukrainian troops found brutal bodies and extensive destruction on the outskirts of Kiev. (Rodrigo Abd / The Associated Press)
Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said investigators had found at least three locations where mass shootings of civilians took place during the Russian occupation. Most of the victims died from gunfire, not from bombings, he said, and corpses with their hands tied were “thrown like firewood” into recently discovered mass graves, including one at a children’s camp. The mayor said the death toll had risen to 320 since Wednesday, but expected the number to rise as more bodies were found in his once-populated city of 50,000. Only 3,700 are left now, he said. CLOCKS The mayor of Bucha talks about the atrocities in his city:

Ukrainian and Western officials say it is clear that Russia committed war crimes in Bucha

April 4, 2022 – Anatoly Fedoruk, mayor of Bucha, Ukraine, talks about how his community is doing. Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne explains his government’s support for the electric vehicle industry. Northwestern Prime Minister Caroline Cochrane talks about her meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Defense Minister Anita Anand and her counterparts in the region to discuss Arctic security. 1:29:37
In his overnight speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Bucha’s horror could only be the beginning. He warned that in the northern city of Borodyanka, just 30 kilometers northwest of Bucha, “it is much scarier.” “Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. “The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes.” He vowed that an ongoing international war crimes investigation would identify “each of the perpetrators” and “all those who committed rape or looting”. CLOCKS What a journalist saw in Borodyanka: “It could be even worse than Bucha,” said Sarah Gomez, after visiting both cities. EFE Noticias correspondent spoke to CBC News Network about what she saw and heard. 4:15
Ukrainians and several Western leaders have blamed Moscow troops for the massacres. Russia falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged. Spiegel reported that the German intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, had intercepted the radio messages and presented the findings to parliament on Wednesday, without giving a source for the information. Spiegel also said that there were additional recordings whose natural origin was more difficult to trace, which he said had similar events in other Ukrainian cities. The wreckage of a car can be seen in the central Borodianka Square, northwest of Kiev, on Monday. The Ukrainian president said on Thursday that there were even more victims on the streets there than in Bucha. (Sergei Supinsky / AFP / Getty Images)

Video of Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners

The German Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter, and a German government spokesman declined to comment on Spiegel. Kuleba was moved when he referred to the horror in Buha, telling reporters that they could not understand “how they feel after seeing photos of the city, talking to people who escaped”. His comments came in response to a reporter’s question about a video that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting a captured and wounded Russian soldier. Kuleba said he had not seen the video, but that it would be investigated and acknowledged that there could be “isolated incidents” of violations. The video has not been independently verified by the Associated Press, but has been verified by the New York Times optical research team. CLOCKS Zelenski visits Bucha after the killings:

Ukrainian President denounces Bucha’s assassination as “genocide”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Bucha, a city near Kyiv, on Monday, where an unknown number of people were killed during the Russian invasion, some of whom appeared to have been shot at close range. 5:49
Zelensky accused Russia of genocide and war crimes. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Western allegations that Russian forces had executed civilians in Bukhara were a “monstrous forgery” aimed at discrediting the Russian military and justifying new Western sanctions. Russia views the executions of civilians as a cynical ploy by Ukraine and its Western backers, who Moscow says have been plagued by discriminatory anti-Russian paranoia.