Waiting to learn about the ravages of the Russian advance in other retaken Ukrainian towns, local authorities and international media continue to document potential war crimes perpetrated by the Russian military, especially in the symbolic suburb of Bucha, north of kyiv.
In the week in which Ukraine has put the first Russian military officer accused of war crimes on the bench, the newspaper ‘The New York Times’ has accessed three recordings, by video surveillance cameras and by the local residents themselves, in in which soldiers, presumably Russians, appear leading eight men, civilians until the war forced them to take up arms to defend their country, lined up to later assassinate them.
One of them was wearing a blue sweatshirt, a key detail for his identification.
In two videos, reports the prestigious American newspaper, Russian paratroopers lead the eight at gunpoint down a street in Bucha. For the most part, the Ukrainian hostages are shown hunched over, holding onto the belts of those in front of them. “Others have their hands above their heads. “Walk to the right, bitch”, one of the soldiers orders them”, collects the NY Times.
The publication assures that the videos correspond to last March 4, in which it can be seen how the civilians were in the custody of the Russian troops before their execution. “The hostages are lying there, against the fence,” says the person who films one of the videos according to the NY Times. One, two, three, sure, four, five, six…
The videos of that day end with what appears to be the murder of the eight Ukrainians. According to witnesses cited by the US media, the Russian soldiers led the men behind a nearby office building that the Russians had occupied and turned into a makeshift base.
“There were shots. The hostages did not return », she adds. Aerial footage recorded by drone a day later, on March 5, shows the bodies lying on the ground next to the office building while two Russian soldiers stood guard next to them. Among the bodies, “a bright blue flash could be seen: the hostage in the blue sweatshirt,” the newspaper concludes.
2
