President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to defeat Russia on Friday, speaking with European leaders in Bucha a year after Moscow sent troops to the Ukrainian city synonymous with war crimes allegations.
Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of the Kremlin, meanwhile urged Moscow and Kiev to mediate the “conflict” in Ukraine and start talks.
In Geneva, UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that Russia’s war in Ukraine has made serious rights violations “surprisingly routine” and is distracting humanity from fighting existential threats to its existence .
Russian troops pull back from Bucha, a commuter town northwest of Kiev, on March 31, 2022, leaving death and destruction behind just a month after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine.
On April 2 last year, AFP journalists discovered the bodies of at least 20 people, some with their hands tied behind their backs, in a suburban street.
Zelensky said, “The battle for the foundation of the free world is taking place on Ukrainian soil. We will definitely win. The Russian evil will fall right here in Ukraine.”
He previously called Bucha a “symbol of atrocities” committed by Russia’s military, which has been linked to extra-judicial killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha.
“We will never forgive. We will punish every criminal,” Zelensky said in a statement on social media.