New Delhi: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has the situation in the town of Borodyanka, where the Russian forces are suspected to have killed civilians, is “significantly more dreadful”.
Over 300 people were reportedly killed by the Russian forces in Bucha, 35 kilometres northwest of the capital Kyiv, and around 50 of them were executed, as per the Ukrainian officials.
Russia has, however, denied targeting the civilians stating the pictures of bodies in Bucha were staged by the Ukrainian government to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail the peace negotiations.
“The work to clear the rubble in Borodyanka has begun ... It’s significantly more dreadful there. Even more victims from the Russian occupiers,” Zelenskyy said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging service.
The town of Borodyanka is about 25 km from Bucha where the killing of civilians has been widely condemned by the West as war crimes, thereby building pressure for stricter sanctions against Russia.
Continuing his outburst against Russia, the Ukrainian President said: “And what will happen when the world learns the whole truth about what the Russian military did in Mariupol?”
“There, on almost every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region after the withdrawal of Russian troops,” he added.
Zelenskyy has also rejected Russia’s claims that one of the aims of its military campaign is to "liberate" largely Russian-speaking places such as the southern port of Mariupol from the threat of genocide by Ukrainian nationalists, who it says have used civilians as human shields.
Refuting the same, the Ukrainian President has called it to be a baseless pretext for Russia`s invasion.