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French Gendarmerie investigating alleged ‘massacre’ in Bucha

The French Gendarmerie has deployed 18 forensic experts to investigate a mass grave in Bucha, where Ukraine accuses Russian forces of “massacre”.

A team of experts from the French national gendarmerie has been working in Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, for the past two days to examine and identify 70 people in a 14-meter-long mass grave found in town. They are part of an effort to find evidence of so-called “war crimes” in Bucha that can be presented to the International Criminal Court.

French officers, dressed in white jumpsuits or navy blue uniforms, and wearing gas masks, took three bodies wrapped in black plastic bags one by one from the mass grave in less than an hour.

Investigators on the team then performed an autopsy to determine the time and cause of death, which could have been gunshot wounds, fire or natural causes. Visual inspection, photography, video recording and DNA sampling were carried out in about 30 minutes.





French police exhume a body in a mass grave in Bucha, northwest of Kiev, on April 14.  Photo: AFP

French police exhume a body in a mass grave in Bucha, northwest of Kiev, on April 14. Image: AFP

Between each excavation, they take breaks to drink or chat with their Ukrainian colleagues, who take care of logistics and security.

The bodies were then put into body bags and loaded onto refrigerated trucks, where they were transported to a specialized unit for post-mortem. A mobile French DNA laboratory parked nearby will identify the deceased from a relative’s DNA sample.

Next, they need to determine if the body has traces that could be considered a war crime. All that evidence will be compiled and supported in national and international investigations.

Ukrainian officials said that after Russian forces withdrew from Bucha on March 30, they found at least 20 bodies of men in plain clothes with their hands tied scattered on the street, as well as several mass graves. body. Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said more than 400 bodies have been found since then.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the opening of an investigation with the participation of domestic and international experts into what he called a “massacre carried out by Russian forces”. French President Emmanuel Macron said there were “clear signs” of “Russia committing war crimes” near Kiev.

However, Russia denied the accusations of Ukraine and the West, saying that these were false information orchestrated by Kiev to “smear” Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the accusations related to Bucha were “all made up like what happened in Syria” and created a pretext for a series of tougher sanctions against Moscow.

After more than a month and a half of opening a special military operation in Ukraine, Russia withdrew its troops from the area around the capital Kiev and the city of Chernihiv to focus on the Donbass region, eastern Ukraine. Experts estimate that in the coming battles in the east, the Ukrainian armed forces will have to face completely different combat conditions and patterns compared to the first stage of the war.

Kiev has urged Western countries to increase support for heavy weapons, especially fighters, tanks and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. Ukraine’s president warned that Russia could launch a large-scale military operation this week.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 4.6 million Ukrainians have been displaced abroad, and 7.1 million have been displaced within Ukraine. The United Nations says at least 1,842 civilians have been killed and 2,493 injured in Ukraine related to the conflict, but the actual number is likely much higher.

Hong Hanh (According to AFP)

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