Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that police officers have found another mass grave containing the bodies of around 900 civilians in part of Kyiv Region which was under Russian control in March.

“International institutions sometimes really do act quite slowly and sometimes… people cannot be held accountable due to the lack of evidence, despite the existence of eyewitnesses, despite everyone having seen it [the crime] take place. But they [Russian troops] also cover the evidence [of their crimes]: take the mobile crematoria which Russians brought here and which they are using to burn people, to burn their dead bodies.”

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“And despite everything, they [the investigators] are searching and their searches are yielding results. Imagine: so many civilians were killed that despite the fact that they [the Russians] burned [some of the corpses in mobile crematoria], another mass grave has been found in Kyiv Region with the bodies of 900 civilians. 900 people!”

“No one knows how many people have been killed. There will be consequences, there will be an investigation, then there will be a census. We have to find all these people [killed by the Russian occupation forces] – but we don’t even know how many there are!” Zelensky said. 

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The latest finding reminds people of Russia’s horrific crimes in Bucha, where hundreds of civilians were found dead with gunshot wounds. The streets of Bucha had been found littered with the bodies of residents, some of who had their hands tied.  

On 23 April, Mayor of Bucha Anatoliy Fedoruk said that 412 civilians killed by the Russian military had been found in mass graves. A total of nearly 1100 bodies of civilians in mass graves have been found in areas of Kyiv Region so far.

Zelensky’s comments came as three missiles hit Kyiv Oblast. Undisclosed infrastructure sites were hit in the incident as the UN’s secretary general was visiting on Thursday.

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“Today, immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five rockets. And this says a lot… about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organisation represents,” Zelensky said.