Jonathan Landay

KYIV (Reuters) – Amnesty International stated Friday that there is compelling evidence to suggest Russian troops committed war crimes in an area they occupied outside of Kiev’s capital, Ukraine, between February and March. This included extrajudicial executions.

Rights group reported that civilians were also subject to abuses like “reckless shots and torture” by Russian forces in their unsuccessful attack on Kyiv on February 24, when the Kremlin launched an invasion.

These aren’t isolated instances. “These are part of a pattern whenever Russian forces have been in control of towns or villages,” Donatella Rovera (Amnesty’s senior crisis adviser) said at a Kyiv news conference.

Russia calls the invasion of Ukraine a “special operation”, which it says was to arm and defend Ukraine from fascists. It denies that its troops committed any abuses. Kyiv and Western supporters claim that Russia’s fascism claim was a pretext to launch an unprovoked aggression war.

Ukrainian authorities claim they are looking into more than 9000 war crimes committed in the past by Russian soldiers. The International Criminal Court also investigates alleged war crimes.

Amnesty is currently documenting alleged Russian war crimes in an area north of Kyiv. It includes Bucha. Ukrainian authorities have claimed that over 400 civilians were murdered. Moscow pulled its troops out of the area in April.

‘UNLAWFUL KILLINGS’

Report concluded that Russian troops were guilty of a host of “apparent war crimes” at Bucha. This included numerous unlawful killings, most of them close to intersections Yablunska/Vodoprovidna.

An investigation by Reuters published Thursday revealed clues to identify individual Russian soldiers or military units in Bucha.

They included the 76th Guards Air Assault Division. The Amnesty also confirmed that the unit was in the area.

Amnesty claimed that it has documented 22 instances of illegal killings by Russian forces in Bucha, and other nearby regions.

Reuters asked Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson about Russia’s operations in Bucha.

Amnesty reported that Russian airstrikes on March 2 and 3 in Borodyanka killed at least 40 civilians and left eight buildings in their wake.

It stated that “Russian forces can’t credibly claim not to be aware that civilians lived in the buildings targeted”