Russian forces recently withdrew from the areas north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Monday over 340 bodies were retrieved from the small town of Butsja. Several dead bodies are still being searched, including in backyards where people are said to have been buried while Russian forces controlled the city.
Dramatic testimonies and gruesome images of executions and torture in the Kyiv suburb, carried out by Russian forces, have shaken the entire world.
The killings of civilians are being described as a massacre, and several world leaders are now demanding that Russia be held accountable for war crimes. But the reactions from the outside world have not been strong enough, says Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
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Morawiecki reacts strongly to Western countries’ focus on negotiating with Vladimir Putin, and is particularly harsh on French President Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken to Putin several times since the outbreak of the war.
– How many times have you negotiated with Putin? What have you achieved? We do not discuss with criminals. We do not negotiate with criminals. Criminals must be fought, he says according to the news agency AFP.
He continues:
– No one negotiated with Hitler. Would you really negotiate with Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot?
Macron has not yet commented on the harsh statements.
The pictures from Butsja shock the world
The Polish Prime Minister emphasizes that there is no question of returning to a relatively normalized relationship with Russia – as representatives of some EU countries talk about – as long as Ukraine’s sovereignty is threatened.
Morawiecki also says that the current sanctions obviously do not work, and calls for stricter sanctions against Russia.
– Even clearer, and more targeted, sanctions are needed, he says.
KILLED: A man in civilian clothes lies dead with his hands tied behind his back. The man in the background prepares the body bag he is to be transported away in. Photo: Sergei Supinsky / AFP / NTB
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Støre will hold Putin accountable
The Russians are accused of war crimes and genocide by several world leaders, including US President Joe Biden.
Recent photos and reports from Butsja, which show lifeless bodies lying on the ground, have provoked massive reactions in this country as well. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will hold Putin accountable.
– It is a war crime that civilians are executed in this way, as these pictures after all sun marks show. This needs to be investigated so we can determine what this is. And we must have a process where those who are responsible, militarily and politically, are held accountable, Støre told Dagbladet on Monday.
Ukraine’s prosecutors have announced that the dead will be autopsied to map the circumstances surrounding what could be arbitrary killings of civilians, which is considered a war crime under international law.
