“They knew our men wouldn’t bomb residential houses.”
The neighborhood of the Ukrainian village of Obukhovych says Russian troops have used them and their homes as shields to prevent counterattacks by Ukraine’s own troops.
In Obukhovych, one of the moats has been dug so far that the foundations of the house are visible. A ditch resembling a moat has been dug around the second house. According to the villagers, there were tanks, communication vehicles and armored crew transport vehicles in the ditches.
AFP saw five trenches dug between houses, streets and gardens in the village. Traces of wheels or rollers were still visible, and ditches contained discarded military clothing as well as Russian and Belarusian tobacco bags.
About 1,500 people lived in the rural village about 70 kilometers northwest of Kiev before the war of aggression. According to locals, Russian troops held their huts in the village from mid-March to the end of the month.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit the use of civilians
The use of human shields in war is prohibited under international humanitarian rules during wartime. Geneva agreements (switch to another service). The convention, which came into force in 1977, says that civilians must not be used in attempts to protect military targets from attack.
– They dug trenches to put their vehicles in them and they used us as shields, says Julia Piankovain the fence of which is written in white paint in Russian the word children.
Pinkova has five children. He said the soldiers came to where they knew there were people.
– This is a central street and they walked around to see who was here. They picked us up from the basement, dropped us off, and the next day they started digging, Pinkova says.
The 75-year-old agrees Zhenya Babenko.
– They knew our men wouldn’t bomb residential houses.
There is evidence of artillery shots in the villages of the village. Some of the windows have exploded and there are holes in the walls.
On the road to the settlement center is a convoy of four destroyed trucks and tanks.
Russia has been charged with numerous war crimes since it launched an offensive war in Ukraine on February 24th. The United Nations has said that the arbitrary attacks on Russia are of great concern.
Although the discovery of bodies dressed in civilian clothes in Butshan City has increased pressure on the President Vladimir Putinia Russia has denied its share of the deaths, claiming that the images of Buchha are fakes.
However, evidence of the brutality of Russian troops is growing day by day as Ukrainian authorities enter the territory previously occupied by Russia, from which soldiers have withdrawn.