Seemingly, with every retreat of Russian forces in Ukraine comes evidence of apparent war crimes. Witness accounts and scene-of-crime evidence suggest that targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure such as houses, hospitals, schools and homes, along with mass rape, sadistic murder, mutilations, summary executions, kidnappings, deportations and looting, were standard practices of the Russian armed forces.
Bel Trew’s reports for The Independent on what has happened in besieged Mariupol are especially harrowing: sandpits in the kindergarten playgrounds of Mariupol are now mass graves because soft soil is quicker to dig when burying corpses under relentless shelling. It appears that every spare patch of land in the city has been turned into a makeshift cemetery.
Among the burned-out cars, there are also charred human remains on the roads regained by the Ukrainians outside Kyiv, in Bucha, Irpin and elsewhere.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies