Group: Russia must face war crime justice

KYIV, Ukraine — Amnesty International says it has documented extensive war crimes by Russian forces in communities around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, including arbitrary executions, bombardments of residences and torture.

“The pattern of crimes committed by Russian forces that we have documented includes both unlawful attacks and willful killings of civilians,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said in a statement on Friday. “It is vital that all those responsible, including up the chain of command, are brought to justice.”

The organization said it collected evidence and testimony in eight cities near Kyiv, including Bucha. After Russian forces retreated from Bucha in April, corpses were found lying on streets, many with their hands bound behind their backs, and in mass graves.

Kyiv regional governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk said that at least 1,235 civilian bodies have been found in the region.

Russia has consistently claimed that it hits only targets with military values. It has denied war-crimes allegations and claimed that the Bucha corpses were falsified as a “provocation.”

AI’s report described the shooting in Bucha of Yevhen Petrashenko, a 43-year-old sales manager, who was shot in his kitchen while his wife and children were hiding in the basement. The Russian military allowed his wife, Tatiana, to enter the apartment, where she found her husband’s corpse.

“Yevhen was lying dead in the kitchen. He had been shot in the back,” the report quoted her as saying.

The investigation also described bombardment of the city of Borodyanka, in which at least 40 people were killed in indiscriminate bombings that destroyed eight residential buildings.