Hundreds Of Civilians Killed In Bucha Ukraine, UN Secretary General Calls For Independent Investigation

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (Wikimedia Commons /IAEA/Imagebank)

JAKARTA - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday said he was "'deeply shocked' by the picture of civilians killed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, calling for an independent investigation that 'leads to effective accountability.'

Guterres posted his comments on Twitter a day after witnesses and officials said Russian troops killed nearly 300 civilians as they retreated from a city near Kyiv. Read more

"I am appalled by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine," Guterres said, joining Western officials in expressing anger.

"It is imperative that independent investigations lead to effective accountability," he stressed.

UN secretary general calls for independent investigation into civilian deaths in Ukrainian city

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday said he was "deeply shocked" by the images of civilians killed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, and he called for an independent investigation that "leads to effective accountability."

Guterres posted his comments on Twitter, a day after witnesses and officials said Russian troops killed nearly 300 civilians as they retreated from a city near Kyiv.

"I am appalled by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine," Guterres said, joining Western officials in expressing anger.

"It is critical that independent investigations lead to effective accountability," he said.

As previously reported, the mayor of Bucha accused Russian troops of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the city during the roughly month-long occupation.

The mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, showed the Reuters team two bodies with white cloths tied around their arms which he said were what residents were forced to wear by fighters from Chechnya, a region in southern Russia that has deployed troops to Ukraine in support of Russia.

One of the corpses was bound by a white cloth and appeared to have been shot in the mouth. Bucha is located 37 km (23 miles) northwest of Kyiv city and this weekend when journalists visited, authorities began making accusations of atrocities, it was a sight of destroyed buildings and streets littered with corpses.

"Every war has some rules of engagement for civilians. Russia has shown that they knowingly kill civilians," Fedoruk said.

Fedoruk said on Saturday that more than 300 of the city's residents had died. Reuters, brought to the scene by Ukrainian authorities, was not immediately able to verify the mayor's allegations.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry categorically rejects the accusations by the Kyiv regime, related to the alleged massacre of civilians in the Bucha City settlement in the Kyiv region that were made last weekend.

Apart from that, the ministry also said that the photos and videos of Bucha are yet another fake made by the Kyiv Government regime for Western media.

"All photos and videos allegedly proving the 'crimes' committed by Russian troops in Bucha City, Kyiv region, which were released by the Kyiv regime, constitute another provocation," the ministry said, TASS reported.

"The photos and videos of Bucha are fakes made by the Kyiv regime for the Western media, just as it was done in Mariupol maternity homes and in other cities," the ministry stressed.