UN Secretary-General visits Bucha while asking Russia to collaborate in war crimes investigation


The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has asked on Thursday Moscow to “agree to cooperate” with the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) about possible war crimes in Ukraineduring a visit to the kyiv suburb of Bucha, which has become a symbol of the atrocities committed since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

“When we see this horrible place, I see how important it is to have a full investigation and establish responsibility,” he said. Guterresto add: “I ask Russia to agree to cooperate with the ICC.”

The Ukrainians accuse the Russians of massacre civilians in Bucha, Borodianka and other suburbs of kyiv before withdrawing after the occupation started at the end of February.

On April 13, the ICC prosecutor, the British Karim Khan, visited Bucha and called Ukraine a “crime scene”. He announced that a forensic team would work on Bucha, and has since said that his investigators would work with him. Joint Investigation Team (ECI) formed in March by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine with the support of Eurojust, the judicial cooperation agency of the European Unionto facilitate the collection of evidence.

“I see my granddaughters”

On his first visit to Ukraine since the conflict began on February 24, Guterres visited Bucha and Borodianka on Thursday morning.

“I imagine my family in one of these houses now destroyed and blackened,” he said earlier in front of the ruined Borodianka houses. “I see my granddaughters running in panic. War is absurd in the 21st century, no war is acceptable in the 21st century,” she added.

Before returning to kyiv, where he was scheduled to meet with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky In the afternoon, Guterres continued his visit to Irpin, where fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces was especially bloody.

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“Everyone should always remember one thing: whatever the war, it is always the civilians who pay the highest price,” Guterres said outside a residential building partially destroyed by shelling.

he ssecretary general of the UN he arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday night, after a visit to Russia on Tuesday. In Moscow, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked him to collaborate with the UN to allow the evacuation of civilians from the bombed areas, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces are concentrating their offensive.


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