It comes as “mounting proof” of war crimes perpetrated by Russian forces in the city near the capital Kyiv will be examined by a United Nations Security Council today.
The Ukrainian President – who was seen carrying back tears as he saw the aftermath on Monday – will manage the council, which is pushing to ensure “justice is done.”
Volodymyr Zelensky surveyed the alleged atrocities near the capital Kyiv, describing the finding of raped women and murdered children among the dead.
He was accompanied by defending service members after overrunning troops had withdrawn from the area.
US President Joe Biden called for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to face a battle crimes trial, counting he is now seeking further sanctions against Russia.
“This guy is brutal, and what’s occurring in Bucha is absurd, and everyone’s seen it,” he said in an impassioned speech last night.
Kyiv intelligence sources have called Lt Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov – who oversees the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade, which inhabited the region – as the leader in the area.
Increasing evidence points to barbarism in Bucha, with local women and kids raped and shot, and demands accountability over atrocities by Vladimir Putin’s forces increasing.
Zelensky has cautioned that worse proof of mass killings of civilians by Moscow will appear as the Russian President moves his troops to the southeast.
It will be his first speech to the Security Council, whose presidency is controlled by the UK, with partners including Russia and China.
The Ukrainian leader blamed Moscow for committing “real genocide” as he appeared visibly moving, flanked by his soldiers and sporting a bullet-proof vest.
Ihor Zhovkva, assistant head of the post of the President of Ukraine, said Mr. Zelensky “will provide all the proof” to the international community at the Security Council session.
“If these awful horrors will not change the world’s schedule, what will change?” the counselor asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
Mr. Zhovkva said Ukraine must “additional weapons,” including tanks and rockets, to “liberate more cities” from Russian control.
Dame Barbara Woodward, Britain’s UN envoy, called images from Bucha “brutal, appalling, probable evidence of war crimes and possibly a genocide.”
She cited hundreds of bodies being abandoned in the streets or mass graves and allegations of rape.
Ukrainian journalist Evgeny Spirin said: “Some of the killed children had their components tied up. Children…. They were tying up children, and there were shot dogs.”
He added: “Irpen, Bucha, Dmitrievka. How to live with this, and is it worth living at all? How do I describe this to myself how?
“They must cease to exist. They must all be destroyed, all turned into dust, mud, clay, all of them.”
Ukrainian activists and web investigators have identified the presence of Omurbekov’s forces – generally based in Russia’s far east – and several other Russian military units.
In the municipality, too, according to the Ukrainians, were influences from the Fifth Separate Guards Tank Brigade of the 36th army of the Russian Eastern military community, the 331st Parachute Assault Regiment of the 98th airborne division, the 137th Parachute Assault Regiment of the 106th airborne regiment, the 104th and 234th Air Assault Regiments of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, 14 and 45 independent guard brigades of particular purpose; the 63rd notable operational forts of the Russian national guard, and the 155th different guard’s battalion of marines of the Pacific Fleet.
So far, no leaders have been named from these forces apart from Omurbekov.
Russian authorities have hit back, claiming the Ukrainians were responsible for the horrors in Bucha and other locations – and are the ones guilty of war crimes.
Russian envoy to the US Anatoly Antonov said: “The Russian defense ministry has fully rejected these false accusations.”
He said:” I would like to tell out that Russian troops left Bucha on March 30.
“The Ukrainian officers remained silent all these days, and now they have suddenly posted sensational footage to tarnish Russia’s appearance and make Russia defend itself.
“I would like to emphasize with full responsibility that no civilian suffered from violence when the Russian Armed Forces controlled the town. Ed Forces.
On the contrary, our troops delivered 452 tonnes of humanitarian aid for civilians.
“Meanwhile, the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the town of Bucha right after Russian troops had left was deliberately ignored in the US.
“This is what could have caused civilian casualties. The Kyiv regime is trying to blame its atrocities on Russia.”
Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy speaker of the Russian upper house of parliament, said: “There are no doubts that it is a staging organized by Kyiv authorities.
“And the fact that the West has decided it up and is hyping it makes it an accomplice of this cynical and immoral crime.”
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed Kyiv colluded with the West to blame Russia.
“I think that the fact that these words were made minutes after these fabrics were released leaves no doubts as to who has contracted this story,” she told the state-run Rossiya-1 television channel.
The West decided immediately Russia was to blame “based on the videos, seconds-long videos, and several photos.
“And they are ready to pour accusations.
“No expert work done, no information from the other side throwing light on what is going on….”
She claimed the slaughter was “a provocation staged by the Ukrainian military and radical jingoes” to disrupt peace talks.
Also, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will talk with her Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, on the second day of her holiday to the capital, Warsaw.
She has reached for Russia to be struck with the “maximum level” of boycotts and for more weapons to be supplied to Mr. Zelensky’s forces to help repel the Kremlin’s troops.
“The idea that we should stay for something else wrong to happen is just completely wrong,” she said, applying pressure to allies.
“Money is still pouring from the West into Putin’s war machine – and that has to quit.”
