UN chief draws attention to horrors as he visits Ukrainian mass gravesites
CBC
Evidence of atrocities against Ukrainian civilians were apparent on Thursday as the United Nations chief surveyed the destruction in towns outside Kyiv that experienced some of the worst horrors of the first onslaught of the war.
The Russian aggression in Ukraine, which Canada's House of Commons unanimously voted to recognize as an act of genocide, has regrouped and refocused on the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine after retreating from the Kyiv region, where it met fierce Ukrainian resistance.
The Donbas is a mostly Russian-speaking region, part of which has been held by Kremlin-backed Ukrainian separatists since 2014.
In a reminder of the horrific toll the war has taken since it began on Feb. 24, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres toured the region outside the capital, Kyiv, and visited several towns, including Bucha, where evidence of widespread killing of civilians was found.
"Wherever there is a war, the highest price is paid by civilians," Guterres said as he visited Irpin, another Kyiv suburb that came under attack.
He sought to drive home the devastation, saying he imagined his own family having to flee from airstrikes against their home, and he reiterated how important it was that the war crimes alleged to have occurred in Bucha and elsewhere be investigated.
"But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crime is war itself," he said.
The discovery of dozens of slain civilians around Kyiv helped to galvanize further support for Ukraine in the West, which has imposed a range of sanctions on Russia and sent arms to Ukraine.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov vowed his country would join others in providing military assistance as he toured another scene of atrocities in Borodyanka outside Kyiv.
"We cannot be indifferent," he said. "We cannot say that this is a Ukrainian problem; we cannot say some people are dying but we are not interested in that."
WATCH | Search is on to assess extent of destruction in Borodyanka:
Western countries have ramped up weapons deliveries to Ukraine in recent days. More than 40 countries met this week at a U.S. air base in Germany and pledged to send heavy arms, such as artillery, for what is expected to be a vast battle of opposing armies along a heavily fortified front line in the east.
Washington now says it hopes Ukrainian forces can not only repel Russia's assault on the east but also weaken its military so that it can no longer threaten neighbours.
In response, Russia said that amounts to NATO waging "proxy war" against it.
