Victims Of Mass Murder Found In Ukraine, President Macron Stops Dialogue With President Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin with French President Emmanuel Macron. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation)

JAKARTA - French President Emmanuel Macron decided to stop dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the discovery of hundreds of bodies of victims of mass killings in Ukraine.

The international community was shocked by the discovery of the bodies of civilians suspected of being victims of mass killings in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, followed by discoveries in other locations, where abnormalities were found in the bodies of the victims.

"Since the massacres we found in Bucha and in other cities, the war has taken a different turn, so I haven't spoken to him again since, but I don't rule out doing it in the future," President Macron told France's TV5, as quoted by Reuters April 19.

Asked why he had not followed the example of other European leaders and traveled to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, President Macron said a show of support by itself was unnecessary after Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

"I'm going back to Kyiv, but I'm going there to take something useful with me. Because obviously, I don't need to go there to show this support," Macron said, adding that he had spoken about 40 times since the start of the war. for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"If I go to Kyiv, it will make a difference," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Russia has called accusations that its troops executed civilians in Bucha while occupying the city a "terrible fabrication", with the aim of humiliating Russian soldiers.

The Kremlin said it launched a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "liberate" Ukraine from nationalist extremists. Ukraine and the West say Putin is waging a war of unwarranted aggression.

As previously reported, more than 900 civilian bodies have been found in the area around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. This discovery came after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Most of them died from gunshot wounds.

This amount is even more than double the amount announced two weeks ago by the Ukrainian authorities.

Quoted from the Guardian, Andriy Nebytov, the head of the regional police, explained that the bodies were left on the road or temporarily buried. He cited police data showing that 95 percent of them had died from gunshot wounds.

"As a result, we understand that under the occupation, people were simply executed on the streets," Nebytov said, adding more bodies were being found every day, under rubble and mass graves.