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Global outcry at civilian killings near Kyiv
STORY: Global outrage spread on Monday (April 4) at civilian killings in north Ukraine, including evidence of bound bodies shot at close range and a mass grave found in areas retaken from Russian troops.Taras Shapravskyi, deputy mayor of Bucha, around 25 miles northwest of Kyiv, said 50 bodies found after Kremlin forces withdrew late last week were the victims of extra-judicial killings by Russian troops. This report contains graphic images of some of those bodies. Reuters could not independently verify the number of dead or who was responsible.Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the International Criminal Court to collect evidence of Russian war crimes, a term also used by French President Emmanuel Macron. In Bucha, a man lay sprawled by the roadside, with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to his head.A mass grave at a church remained open, with hands and feet poking through red clay heaped on top.Ukrainian authorities said they had found 421 civilian casualties near Kyiv by Sunday.The images from Bucha looked set to galvanize the United States and Europe into fresh sanctions against Moscow.And to overshadow peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, due to restart by video link on Monday.The Kremlin categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in Bucha and said Ukrainian allegations on the matter should be treated with doubt.Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the images were staged. “The other day another fake attack was undertaken in the town of Bucha in the Kyiv region, after the Russian military had left according to plans and agreements. Several days later, a fake video was staged. That is now is being spread through all media channels and social media by Ukrainian representatives and their Western patrons.”Adding to the mounting accusations – the head of the village of Motyzhyn, her husband and son were shot and buried in a shallow grave, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry said, showing their partially covered bodies in the sand. One had his head taped. Reuters couldn’t independently verify who killed the family.A Reuters reporter also saw another body of a man in a well near a burnt-out farm. He appeared to have been tied up.The United States will ask the U.N. General Assembly to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday.
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