Calls to hold Russia accountable after Kyiv accused it of committing massacres and Moscow: fabricated photos

Ukraine said that it had found evidence of Russian forces committing war crimes in the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, while Russia denied this and said that the footage and pictures were "another provocation" and a Ukrainian "fabrication", while London and Washington demanded that Russia be held accountable for this.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Irina Vendiktova said on television that prosecutors investigating possible war crimes by Russian forces had found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv and examined 140 of them.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Aristovich announced that his country's authorities had found evidence that Russian forces had committed war crimes in the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.

In a press statement today, Aristovich said that dozens of dead civilians were found in the streets of the suburbs of Irbin, Bucha and Hostomil in Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces from them.

The presidential advisor explained that some of the victims were shot in the head and their hands were tied, while signs of torture appeared on some of the bodies.

"Ukrainian fabrication"

Russia, in turn, denied Ukraine's allegations that it had killed civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry described the footage and photos showing the dead bodies as "another provocation" and a Ukrainian "fabrication".

The ministry said that all Russian military units left the town on March 30.

International condemnation

In this context, German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock said on Sunday that imposing tougher sanctions is the price that Russia must pay for "war crimes" in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, and denounced what she described as "unbridled violence" practiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Pictures from Bucha are intolerable, Putin's unrestrained violence is killing innocent families and knows no bounds," the German minister said on Twitter.

"Those responsible for these war crimes must be held accountable. We will tighten sanctions against Russia and further help Ukraine defend itself," she added.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the images of dead Ukrainian civilians found in the town of Bucha were "extremely distressing" and that those responsible for any war crime should be held accountable.

"We can't help but find these images extremely distressing," Blinken said, before noting that President Joe Biden's administration had said it believed Russian forces committed war crimes and was helping to gather evidence.

Blinken avoided answering a question whether the United States believed that Russian forces had committed genocide.

As for Britain, its Secretary of State, Liz Truss, has called for an investigation into Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians as "war crimes".

In a statement, Truss said the UK would fully support any such move by the International Criminal Court.

"As Russian forces are forced to withdraw, we are seeing increasing evidence of horrific acts by invading forces in cities such as Irbin and Bucha", near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, she added.

On Saturday, the mayor of Bucha, just outside the Ukrainian capital, said that 300 residents had been killed during the month-long "Russian army occupation" of the town.