Ukraine identifies Russian commander accused of mass murder in Bucha
By Angus Watson, CNN
(CNN) — Ukraine has identified a Russian commander it accuses of “systematic and coordinated war crimes” in Bucha, near Kyiv, where hundreds of civilians were murdered during its brief occupation by Russian troops in 2022.
Yurii Vladimirovich Kim, the commander of a platoon in Russia’s 76th Air Assault Division, is accused of ordering his troops to murder civilians between March 7 and April 1 2022, according to an indictment from Ukraine’s Prosecutor General.
Bucha, where the Russian retreat revealed the bodies of children and the elderly lying in the streets, has become synonymous with the brutality of Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Hundreds of civilians were found buried in mass graves, others were tortured and executed in basements.
Ukraine accuses Kim, who is not in custody, of criminal responsibility in 17 killings and four instances of ill-treatment by troops under his command in Bucha. Lawyers from Global Rights Compliance, assisting Ukrainian officials in evidence gathering, said the case against Kim is founded on witness testimonies, forensics, crime scene reconstructions, identity parades, maps and open source intelligence.
Kim is also accused of ordering the bodies of victims to be burned to cover up the crimes.
“The case highlights a methodical approach to war crimes committed by Russian forces, indicating that many atrocities in Bucha were part of a highly coordinated criminal plan that implicates Russian leadership,” Global Rights Compliance wrote in a statement.
Ukraine has previously named soldiers and at least one commander it says is guilty of mass murder in Bucha.
“We have moved beyond bringing low-ranking perpetrators to account — now we are uncovering the chain of command decisions through which ordinary orders turned into mass executions of civilians,” Maksym Tsutskiridze, First Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine wrote in a statement issued by the lawyers.
The Kremlin has denied its troops killed civilians in Bucha and has accused Ukraine of creating fake images of civilian bodies in the town.
CNN has approached the Russian government for comment.
This story has been updated to remove the line saying Kim was the first commander to be issued with a Notice of Suspicion.
The-CNN-Wire
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