THE SQUIZ
In the wake of Russia’s withdrawal from the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, evidence has emerged of the brutal murder of civilians, which President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a “genocide” against his people. He has visited the devastated city of Bucha overnight and says Ukrainians have been tortured and killed because they refused to submit to the Russians. Horrified world leaders are calling for harsher sanctions against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in response to the brutality.

WHAT DO WE KNOW SO FAR?
Images show civilian bodies strewn across the streets of Bucha (a small city 55km northwest of Kyiv), and satellite images show a mass grave within the grounds of a church. Ukrainian officials say 410 bodies have been found in the area. The city’s coroner Serhiy Kaplishny has returned after fleeing the fighting and says some were Ukrainian soldiers, but most of the people found were in civilian clothes. Many had their hands tied behind their back with an execution-style gunshot wound to the head. Russian forces also suffered casualties after a column of tanks was attacked by a Ukrainian drone earlier in the war. When Russian reinforcements arrived days later, locals say that troops conducted house-to-house searches, taking food and money. 

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING ABOUT IT?

The images of the death and destruction in Bucha have drawn a big response. US President Joe Biden once again called Putin a “war criminal” overnight, and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the images and accounts of what happened there as a “punch to the gut.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Putin and his backers would “feel the consequences” through a new round of sanctions extending to the country’s lucrative gas industry. Russia has rejected the reports of civilian deaths and requested a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the “blatant provocation by Ukrainian radicals.” The US scoffed at this suggestion, and UK PM Boris Johnson said “no denial or disinformation from the Kremlin can hide what we all know to be the truth – Putin is desperate, his invasion is failing.”