Local officials said more than 300 people had been killed by Russian forces in Bukha, 35 kilometers northwest of the capital Kiev, and about 50 had been executed. read more Moscow has denied targeting civilians and says images of corpses in Bucha were directed by the Ukrainian government to justify further sanctions against Moscow and to derail peace talks. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “The work of clearing the rubble in Borodyanka has begun … It is much scarier there. Even more victims than the Russian occupiers,” Zelensky said in a video posted to the Telegram messaging service. The city is about 25 km from Bucha. Firefighters work on the site of buildings destroyed by bombing, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Borodyanka, in the Kiev region, Ukraine, April 7, 2022. REUTERS / Marko Djurica read more He did not provide further details or information that Russia was responsible for the deaths of civilians in the city. The killing of civilians in the city of Bukha has been widely condemned by the West as war crimes, pushing for tougher sanctions against Russia. “And what will happen when people find out the whole truth about what the Russian army did in Mariupol?” Zelensky asked. “There, on almost every street, is what people saw in Bukha and other cities in the Kiev region after the withdrawal of Russian troops.” Moscow says one of the goals of its military campaign is to largely “liberate” Russian-speaking areas such as the southern port of Mariupol from the threat of genocide by Ukrainian nationalists, who it says have used civilians as human shields. Zelensky dismissed the allegations, saying they were an unfounded pretext for the Russian invasion. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Reuters. Written by Conor Humphries and Ronald Popeski. curated by Grant McCool Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
