As Ukrainians secure previously Russian-held villages and positions, the extent of the Russian military’s cruelty is slowly becoming clear, one horrific atrocity at a time.
The body of a mayor of a Ukrainian village has been found after being kidnapped by the Russian military.
Olga Sukhenk was the mayor of a Ukrainian village called Moyzhyn went missing during the invasion and occupation of Bucha and surrounding areas by Russian invaders on March 23, 2022. The mayor of Moyzhyn was found executed and dumped into a mass grave alongside both her husband and her son. RELATED: Russian State Media Declares War On Arnold Schwarzenegger After He Issues Message To Putin’s People This was not a rescue operation or a prisoner exchange, this was, by all credible accounts, the detention and summary execution of a civilian family by the Russian military, and, worst of all, they were not the exception. As Russia has pulled back from Kyiv and northern Ukraine, they have left behind a mountain of evidence of atrocities committed against civilians. An advisor to Ukraine’s interior ministry named Anton Herashchenko spoke of the actions of the Russian military, saying, “The occupiers suspected they were collaborating with our military, giving us locations of where to target our artillery These scum tortured, slaughtered and killed the whole family,”
Sukhenk and her family were found with the bodies of hundreds of other civilians.
The pictures of the piles of the dead and those left out in the street have caused many to claim that Russia was carrying out a genocide in Ukraine, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said, “What you see around, what they did to this modern town, is a characteristic of the Russian military, who treated people worse than animals. These are war crimes, and this will be recognized by the world as genocide.” Many other world leaders are confirming Zelensky’s claim that Russia is committing genocide. RELATED: Wars Are Not Won Without Women — How Ukrainian Women Are Carrying The Burden Of The Russian Invasion While President Joe Biden has already said that Moscow’s actions in Ukraine constituted war crimes, he also echoed Zelensky’s statements but stopped short of calling what we’re seeing in Ukraine a genocide as of the time of writing.
The killing of so many civilians by the Russian military may affect peace talks.
Zelensky also went on to describe the difficulties in having peace talks following the discovery of the Russian military’s atrocities, saying, “It’s very difficult to conduct negotiations when you see what they did here.” The Ukrainian president also made it clear that Russia was only continuing to make its position more challenging, saying, “The longer the Russian Federation drags it out, the worse it will exacerbate its own situation and this war.” Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin has claimed that the killings were not carried out by Russian troops, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. If you want to help the people of Ukraine, please donate to United Help Ukraine which is providing donations, food, and medical supplies to displaced Ukrainians. RELATED: Russian Journalist Auctions Off His Nobel Peace Prize Medal To Raise Money For Ukraine Dan O’Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.
