The European Union will impose sanctions against nine people suspected of war crimes related to the killings in Bucha in the Kyiv region. This was announced by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot before the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
In addition, the restrictions will affect several individuals whom the EU considers to be involved in Kremlin propaganda. Among them is the Franco-Russian Adrien Bocquet.
“A key recruiter of foreign fighters in Ukraine, responsible for glorifying war crimes, and also responsible for disinformation campaigns in Europe and Africa,” Barrot noted.
Bucha was under the control of Russian troops for 33 days. On the morning of February 27, 2022, Russian heavy equipment entered the city. On the same day, a rocket hit a residential building, and the city’s mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, reported the first deaths.
On March 31, 2022, Russian troops left the city, and on April 2, the Ministry of Defense officially announced the liberation of all settlements in the Kyiv region. After that, journalists and Ukrainian military personnel who entered Bucha found numerous evidence of mass killings of civilians. Some of the bodies were lying on the streets, and some of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs.
Ukraine called on the international community to join the investigation of these crimes. On April 14, 2022, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, personally visited Bucha. That same month, the city began exhuming bodies from a mass grave near the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called and All Saints to establish the identities of the deceased and the circumstances of their deaths.
Maxar Technologies reported that the first signs of a mass grave near the church were visible on satellite images as early as March 10, 2022.
According to law enforcement officials, more than 9,000 war crimes were recorded during the events in the Buchansky district, and more than 1,700 civilians became victims. During 2022, investigators managed to identify 91 Russian servicemen suspected of involvement in these crimes.
