Bucha and Mariúpol, mortally wounded by the fire of the war in Ukraine

The authorities of Ukraine announce that the kyiv region has been liberated from Russian troops amid reports of a bloody massacre in Buchawhile the martyr city of Mariupol it is still dying between the resistance and the urgent need of its population to be evacuated.

“Some were lying on the sidewalk, others next to a car or a bicycle,” denounced in a video broadcast on Facebook the mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, who stated that 280 bodies had already been buried in a common grave due to the impossibility of using the municipal cemetery.

ALLEGATIONS OF GENOCIDE

The reaction was immediate: the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskywas quick to describe these alleged summary executions of civilians as “genocide”, a definition also used by the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschkó.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, urged the sending of a mission from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to Bucha, to investigate this massacre.

“The massacre of Bucha it was deliberate. The Russians want to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can.” he stated on Twitter, calling on the international community to impose “devastating sanctions against Moscow.”

The bodies of civilians lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of kyiv, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP).

RUSSIA DENIES THE MASSACRE

While, Russia denied these accusations today and stated that “all the photos and videos published by the kyiv regime, which allegedly testify to some kind of crime by Russian military personnel, are another provocation.”

He stated that, during the time this city was under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, “not a single local resident suffered violent actions.”

People react as they gather near a mass grave in the city of Bucha, northwest of Ukraine’s capital kyiv, on April 3, 2022. (Sergei SUPINSKY/AFP)

Russia He assured that he never blocked the exit from the city and that “all local residents had the opportunity to freely leave the town in a northerly direction, including to the Republic of Belarus.”

Explanations that have not calmed the international community, since more and more voices of condemnation are added to the demand to investigate this crime.

The body of a girl killed by Russian bombardment waits to be taken from a hospital in Mariupol on Feb. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

MARIÚPOL, BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

While, Mariupol continues under fire from the Russian Army, which has intensified its offensive in order to take the city as soon as possible.

“Every minute the defenders of Mariupol they are on the edge between life and death, and they continue their heroic fight for Ukraine and its citizens in the midst of the blockade, fighting for every meter of the homeland.”declared in a video posted on Twitter Sviatoslav Ponomar, deputy commander of the ultra-nationalist Azov regiment.

As reported by British intelligence in its part today, Russian troops continue their advance and are likely to capture Mariupol “within days”, after having divided “in two or three the Ukrainian defenders in the city”.

While, the defenders of the city do not lose hope that kyiv can respond to their calls for help.

“We trust that the blockade will be broken. We know that politicians and the military do everything possible in this regard. We believe that Ukraine has the solution for this situation”Ponomar stated in his message.

Ukrainian soldiers inspect destroyed Russian military machinery in the recaptured areas in the city of Bucha, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. (EFE/EPA/ATEF SAFADI).

CIVILIANS IN CROSS-FIRE

According to the head of the civil-military administration of the region of Donetsk controlled by kyiv, Pavel Kirilenko, some 120,000 people remain blocked in the city, just over a quarter of the total population of Mariupol before the Russian military campaign, barely subsisting in the total absence of vital basic services.

“Everyone who has the possibility should temporarily leave the region. We all need to put panic aside. There is a high probability that the situation will get complicated. This is self-evident”, he pointed out, denouncing that the Russian troops use the population as “an important lever for manipulation”.

A complaint similar to that of the Kremlin, which has accused the Ukrainian troops and, in particular, the nationalist formations such as Azov, of using civilians as “human shields” and placing weapons in densely populated areas.

Communal workers carry the body of a civilian in the city of Bucha, near kyiv, on April 3, 2022. (SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP)

HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk today announced preparations to evacuate civilians from Mariupol in the direction of Zaporizhia.

“Now we have 17 buses in Berdyansk. Of them, 10 are to evacuate people from Mariupol. Another 7 buses will try to get closer to Mariupol accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross”, he wrote on his Telegram channel.

The day before, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Berdyansk starting at 0:00 local time on Sunday, by guaranteeing “strict compliance with the ceasefire along the route.”

Russia offered help to evacuate foreign citizens who are still blocked in the city, in which, according to Ukrainian media, nearly 5,000 civilians have lost their lives, and among them, more than 210 minors.

The head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, called for “the full assistance of the kyiv authorities for the passage of a humanitarian convoy from Mariupol, the strict observance of the ‘regime of silence’ during the evacuation, as well as the elimination of the threat of bombing”, and demanded that the Ukrainian side accept “in writing” its agreement in this regard.

Source: Elcomercio