Mass grave site found in Ukraine's Bucha

RUSSIA, UKRAINE: Satellite images show a 45-foot-long trench dug into the grounds of a Ukrainian church where a mass grave was found this week after Russian forces withdrew from the town of Bucha, a private U.S. company said on Sunday.

Journalists who visited Bucha on Saturday saw bodies lying on the streets of the town, 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital Kyiv. A mass grave at one church was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top.

Ukraine accused Russian forces on Sunday of carrying out a “massacre” in the town, one of many recaptured by Ukrainian troops as Russia regrouped for battles in eastern Ukraine. Russia denied the allegations, calling them a “provocation” by Ukraine.

Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, said the first signs of excavation for a mass grave at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints were seen on March 10.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry denied the Ukrainian allegations, saying footage and photographs showing bodies in Bucha were “yet another provocation” by the Ukrainian Government.

The images from the town, 37 km (23 miles) northwest of Kyiv’s city centre, emerged after Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had reclaimed control of the whole Kyiv region and liberated towns from Russian troops.

Russia requested that the U.N. Security Council convene to discuss what Moscow called a “provocation by Ukrainian radicals” in Bucha. The Defence Ministry in Moscow described photos and videos from the town as a “staged performance.”

-INDIA TODAY