The
Ukrainian military recaptured the small towns of Irpin and Bucha
outside the capital, Kyiv, in late March last year.
International investigators are now collecting evidence in
Irpin, Bucha and other places where Ukraine says Russian troops
committed large-scale atrocities. Russia denies the allegations.
"For many residents of the Kyiv region, the past year has become
the most horrific in their entire lives. And the liberation of
the Kyiv region has become a symbol of the fact that Ukraine
will be able to win this war," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
wrote in English on the Telegram messaging app.
"Events that could not be imagined in the 21st century have
become a reality in the satellite cities of Kyiv – Bucha and
Irpin. Russian troops marched on the Ukrainian capital from the
north and brought death and destruction."
Zelenskiy wrote his Telegram post under video footage showing
heavily damaged buildings and vehicles that had been destroyed
in Bucha and Irpin.
The video also included interviews with survivors recalling
their experiences during the occupation, and footage of corpses
lined up on the ground in black body bags.
The video, compiled by the Ukrainian fundraising initiative
UNITED24, put the civilian death toll in areas of the Kyiv
region liberated from Russian forces at 1,137, including 461
killed in Bucha alone.
The Russian forces that invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year
were halted outside the capital and later pulled back, but the
Kyiv region is still frequently the target of missile and drone
strikes as battles rage elsewhere.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage and
Angus MacSwan)
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