A grieving family huddle in tears by a mass grave in Ukraine, as calls grow for Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial over a string of civilian executions by his forces.
An emotional Volodymyr Zelensky again accused Moscow of genocide after he toured the devastated town of Bucha, where 300 residents were found dead, some bound and gagged.
The Ukrainian President claimed thousands of people have been murdered and butchered by rampaging Russian troops since they invaded the country.
As more mass graves were discovered, Mr Zelensky said: “It will be recognised by the world as genocide. We know of thousands of people killed and tortured, with their limbs severed, women raped and children killed.”
Speaking about the massacre in Bucha, just outside the capital Kyiv, he added: “Hundreds of people were killed, tortured. Corpses on the street, mined areas. Even the bodies of the dead were mined.
“Concentrated evil has come to our land. Murderers, torturers, rapists, looters who call themselves the army, and who deserve only death after what they did.”
But shameless Moscow officials accused Ukrainians of staging the killings.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “From what we have seen, our experts have identified signs of video falsification and other fakes.”
Mr Zelensky has set up a special body to investigate Russian war crimes – a call echoed by US President Joe Biden.
He said: “I decided to create a special mechanism of justice in Ukraine to investigate and prosecute every crime of the occupiers in our country.” It will include “international experts, investigators, prosecutors and judges”.
More than 100 corpses have been examined by forensic scientists preparing dossiers for future war crimes tribunals.
Intelligence chiefs have a target list of Russian troops from 64 infantry brigades allegedly behind atrocities in Bucha.
In Motyzhyn, to the west of Kyiv, the bodies of four people who appeared to have been shot at close range were seen in a pit. Boris Johnson branded the discovery “sickening”.
Keir Starmer said Russian soldiers involved in war crimes in Ukraine should know “for the rest of their lives” they will be “chased down” and prosecuted.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss last night called for Russia to be kicked off the UN’s Human Rights Council over the atrocities. She said: “After these appalling crimes, Russia has no place on it.”
As many as 22 schools daily have been hit by warplanes since the invasion started, Save The Children revealed. More than two million kids have fled while around 5.5 million remain.
Up to 130,000 civilians are still unable to leave the besieged town of Mariupol. Grim statistics reveal 161 children have been killed and 264 injured.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said the port city had suffered an even worse onslaught than Bucha.
He added: “The horrors we have seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes that have been committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.”
An evacuation convoy escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross was blocked in the town of Manhush as it attempted to reach Mariupol last night.
Kharkiv resident Olena Kolesnik, who fled to Poland, said: “This is genocide. This is fascism. This is the extermination of people, innocent people, children, women and the elderly.”
