Police have set up in Bucha a documentation centre for Russian war crimes

In Bucha, scene of numerous atrocities (see below), Ukraine’s law-enforcement agencies have set up a documentation centre where they will record and process the testimony of the victims and witnesses of murders, torture, inhuman treatment, rape and other war crimes committed by the Russian invaders across the Kyiv Region.

“Not only leading specialists but all the accessible material and technical resources of Ukraine’s police force will be used in the work of the centre,” states the announcement by the National Police. A mobile laboratory for identifying DNA is among those resources: its equipment will be able to simultaneously analyse the DNA of between four and five of those killed and the results may be available within two hours.

“We have solved the majority of war crimes thanks to the testimony of our citizens,” say the police. “So, please, don’t be indifferent: help us to restore justice and punish the criminals.”

Ukraine’s law enforcement agency is calling on all who have any information about crimes committed in the Region to contact the documentation centre in Bucha: Bucha, 2 Energetikov Street, town library. Phone calls are also being taken (+380) 680-461655; and witness statements may be left on the “War Crimes in the Kyiv Region” Telegram channel.

The KHPG is actively collaborating with the new documentation centre and other authorised law-enforcement bodies. Our collaboration includes the prompt exchange of information about war crimes and about the victims and witnesses of these crimes.

May we remind readers that inhabitants of the Kyiv Region who have lost relatives or property, or whose relations are being held prisoner as a result of Russian aggression, can apply to the KHPG office in Kyiv for free legal, humanitarian and psychological help. Those whose relatives have died because of the war are entitled to monetary support. They should first ring telephone number (+380) 505-552795.

As recently reported, the police have identified a soldier with the Russian forces whom they suspect of having issued an order that identified all dressed in black clothing as enemies. As a result, an unarmed security guard at a supermarket who represented no threat to Russian forces was shot dead: in the words of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Russian soldiers “decided to carry out this criminal order and shot a civilian using an automatic weapon”.

Russian forces entered Bucha on 27 February 2022. During an occupation that lasted 33 days Russian forces committed over 9,000 war crimes, more than 270 crimes a day. “More than 1,400 civilians were murdered, many of whom were tortured before their deaths,” stated Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin. “Among the dead were 37 children; another 52 children were wounded.”