Russia guilty of war crimes: Mass graves in Bucha; Kharkiv and Dergachi bombed

Ukraine and Western nations on Sunday accused Russian troops of war crimes after the discovery of a mass grave and “executed” civilians in Bucha, near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

Russian troops also shelled residential areas in Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, and the nearby town of Dergachi.

Russia guilty of war crimes

Kharkiv bombing

On Sunday, seven people died and 34 were wounded after Russian forces struck a residential area in Kharkiv, local prosecutors said in a statement.

“On April 3 at around 6pm local time, Russian invaders fired on residential buildings in the Sloboda districts of Kharkiv.

“As a result, around ten houses and a trolleybus depot were damaged. Seven people died, 34 were injured, including three children,” Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said on Telegram. 

Kharkiv, which lies in northeast Ukraine close to the Russian border, has been heavily damaged since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on 24 Febuary 2022. 

Dergachi bombing

Russian forces also shelled the nearby town of Dergachi, leaving at least three dead and wounding seven, its mayor Vychaeslav Zadorenko said on Facebook.  

He said all three victims were civilians. 

Six people were also killed and another injured in the eastern Donetsk region by Russian strikes, the head of the regional military administration Pavel Kirilenko said on Telegram. 

Earlier on Sunday the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said Russia had shelled a hospital in the eastern town of Rubizhne. At least one person had died, he said. 

Bucha horrors

AFP journalists on Saturday saw massive holes left by shells in apartment blocks, numerous wrecked cars and streets littered with debris or downed power lines.

The buried corpses of 57 people were found behind a church in the town’s centre, according to the chief of local rescue efforts, Serhiy Kaplychniy, who showed AFP the trench where the bodies lay. 

AFP reporters also saw the bodies of at least 22 people in civilian clothes on a single street in Bucha, one with his hands tied behind his back.

NOW READ: Bucha massacre: What we know about the horror in the small Ukrainian town

‘Hold Russia accountable’

On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the “egregious and appalling” killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, saying Russia must be held to account.

“We strongly condemn the murder of civilians in Ukraine, remain committed to holding the Russian regime accountable,” Trudeau tweeted.

“Those responsible for these egregious and appalling attacks will be brought to justice,” he added.

© Agence France-Presse