JAKARTA - French forensic experts have arrived in Bucha near Kyiv, Ukraine to help authorities determine what happened in the city where hundreds of bodies have been found since Russian troops withdrew.
Ukraine says the men were killed by Russian troops during their occupation of the area. Reuters was unable to verify the number of people found dead in Bucha or the circumstances of their deaths.
The discovery of so many civilians killed in Bucha after Russia's withdrawal has sparked global outrage. Moscow has denied responsibility and rejected accusations its troops committed war crimes, dismissing them as fake news.
As the group from the French Gendarmerie's department of forensic science watched, workers in hazmat suits dug up dirt from the shallow grave and lifted a heavy object wrapped in an orange blanket.
Attorney General Iryna Venediktova said, citing witnesses, that the burnt body parts inside belonged to a woman and her two children.
Venediktova further said that over the next few weeks French experts would help Ukrainian authorities determine what happened to the people in Bucha.
"We now have a lot of work, unfortunately with war crimes," Venediktova said at the site of the churchyard, where locals hastily bury people who died during the occupation of the city, cited from Reuters, April 13.
"When you see the bodies here, from the other side, from the Russian Federation, they say it's all fake, all this is our theatre," bitter Venediktova.
Venediktova said international experts would be able to see the situation for themselves.
"They can see everything, they can see the situation here: real graves, real corpses, real bomb attacks. That's why for us this moment is so important."
Moscow, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, has called allegations that Russian troops executed civilians in Bucha while they were occupying the city, a "terrible fabrication" aimed at degrading Russian soldiers.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that pictures and footage of bodies strewn across the Ukrainian city of Bucha were fake.
Speaking at a televised news conference, President Putin compared Ukrainian allegations that Russian servicemen executed civilians in Bucha, with what he said was a Western staging of a chemical weapons attack in Syria aimed at incriminating Bashar al-Assad.
"It's the same kind of fake in Bucha," he said.
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On Monday, French authorities said the team, which included experts in ballistics, explosives, and rapid DNA testing, would also be able to contribute what they found to an International Criminal Court investigation.
Separately, local Pastor Andriy Halavin said their work would help prove to the world what happened to the Bucha people, including those recently discovered in his churchyard.
"Not only did they die from the explosion, by chance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they were shot on purpose," Halavin explained.
"Some were in the car, driving, and they were shot. Some were walking on the street and they were shot. It is very important for the whole world to see the truth, because Russian propaganda always tells stories and lies," he concluded.
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