In Borodianka, the situation is “much more horrible” than in Boutcha with “more victims”. These are the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to describe the situation in this city located near kyiv, which had just over 13,000 inhabitants before the war. With the withdrawal of Russian troops from the capital region to concentrate on the east of the country, and in particular the regions of Donbass, terrible images are now being unveiled.
The massacre of civilians in Bucha, described as “war crimes” by many Western leaders and “genocide” by the Ukrainian head of state, has already sparked outrage prompting UN member states to exclude Russia of its Human Rights Council and new sanctions against Moscow.
- 26 bodies extracted from the rubble
Twenty-six bodies were extracted by Ukrainian rescuers from the rubble of two apartment buildings in Borodianka, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova announced on Thursday April 7.
But “it is difficult to predict how many deaths there will be” identified in total, she immediately underlined, noting that it is “the most destroyed city in the region” of kyiv.
Borodianka, the most destroyed city in the capital region according to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova
(Photo by Aleksey Filippov / AFP)
- Evidence of war crimes
“Only the civilian population was targeted: there is no military site” in this locality recently taken over by Ukrainian forces after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the capital region, continued the general prosecutor.
Iryna Venediktova claimed that the Russians used cluster bombs and heavy multiple rocket launchers there “which bring death and destruction”. “There is evidence of war crimes by Russian forces at every turn,” she wrote. “The enemy treacherously bombarded the residential infrastructure in the evening, when there were a maximum of people at home,” she denounced.
- Murder, torture, rape…
Iryna Venediktova accused Russian soldiers of engaging in ‘murders, tortures and beatings’ of civilians, as well as rapes, pointing out that law enforcement was collecting evidence for local courts and international.
The town of Borodianka is unrecognizable, as if gutted. The buildings, destroyed, spilled their contents, mainly clothes, on the treetops. A building with a gaping hole recalls the explosions that have passed by, as well as this charred mattress, which hangs in the open air. A charred tank is parked in the bowels of a devastated building. Children’s toys are strewn all over the street, too numerous to count. Nothing is out of place. Some houses simply no longer exist.
A destroyed residential building in the town of Borodianka, northwest of kyiv
(Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
The windows are shattered, and the remnants of a life once lived behind closed doors are now scattered across the street: a fridge covered in magnets, a brown oriental rug hanging on a wall, a strangely intact.
Today, the houses are no more than a pile of bricks and metal, which clash to the rhythm of the harsh Ukrainian wind. Valentyna Petrenko made her way from the nearby village to witness the horror. “When the [soldats] Russians arrived, they took our cell phones and robbed houses. We tried to behave normally with them, so as not to provoke them,” the 67-year-old woman told AFP on the demolished bridge on the outskirts of the city. “A missile hit our village, my house was in ruins, everything was in ruins,” she said. “The Russians committed atrocities, many atrocities.”