Ukraine’s president said the past year had been “the most horrific” in the lives of many residents of the Kyiv region, where Russian troops are accused of committing war crimes before withdrawing a year ago.
The Ukrainian military recaptured the small towns of Irpin and Bucha outside the capital, Kyiv, in late March last year.
International investigators are now collecting evidence in Irpin, Bucha and other places where Ukraine says Russian troops committed large-scale atrocities. Russia denies the allegations.
“For many residents of the Kyiv region, the past year has become the most horrific in their entire lives. And the liberation of the Kyiv region has become a symbol of the fact that Ukraine will be able to win this war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in English on the Telegram messaging app.
“Events that could not be imagined in the 21st century have become a reality in the satellite cities of Kyiv – Bucha and Irpin. Russian troops marched on the Ukrainian capital from the north and brought death and destruction.”
