Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to defeat Russia during a visit to Bucha with several European leaders on Friday. One year after Moscow’s forces withdrew from the town associated with war crimes claims.
“On Ukrainian soil, the battle for the foundation of the free world is taking place.” We will undoubtedly triumph. “Russian evil will fall, right here in Ukraine, and will never rise again,” Zelensky predicted.
A year after Bucha became a symbol of accused Russian war crimes, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Ukraine will “never forgive” Moscow for its occupation.
On March 31, 2022, Russian forces withdrew from the commuter town northwest of Kyiv. Just over a month after President Vladimir Putin ordered his soldiers to attack Ukraine.
On April 2, last year, bodies of at least 20 individuals dressed in civilian clothing. Some with their hands tied behind their backs, lying in a suburban street.
According to Zelensky, Bucha has become “a symbol of atrocities” done by Russian forces in Ukraine. Who, has been connected to extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha.
“We will never, ever forgive.” “We will punish every perpetrator,” Zelensky said in a social media post.
During a visit to Bucha just days before Russian forces left, Zelensky called the killings “genocide.”
Following the discovery, Ukraine and its Western allies accused Russian soldiers of war crimes, citing an abundance of footage and witness accounts.
Prosecutors in Kyiv claim Russian troops killed approximately 1,400 civilians in the Bucha region and that dozens of Russian soldiers are to blame.
Moscow, however, denies the allegations, saying that the atrocities in Bucha were staged.
Many foreign leaders and officials who have toured Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict have stopped in Bucha.
‘Keep on living’ –
In Bucha last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed “strong indignation.”
After Russia withdrew from close Kyiv, fighting shifted to Ukraine’s south and east, with Bakhmut becoming the site of the longest and bloodiest battle since the invasion.
Bucha, however, has not forgotten its victims a year after it was retaken by Kyiv’s troops.
The suburb’s community is rebuilding, and residents told AFP that “the pain has subsided” and that they must “continue to live.”
AFP witnessed dozens of construction workers weaving between diggers and trucks on Thursday as they laboured to rebuild homes and roadways in the town, which had a pre-war population of approximately 37,000 people.
The local parish’s archpriest, Archpriest Andriy, said it is “important” not to neglect those who are “not with us today.”
“But it’s also important for us to live in the present, not the past,” he told AFP.
