Russia-Ukraine crisis: Mass graves with 900 bodies found in Kyiv Oblast, claims Zelenskyy

As the Russia-Ukraine war has entered its 66th day, the President of war-torn Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the mass grave including 900 bodies had been discovered in several locations around Kyiv Oblast. According to the Kyiv Independent, the Ukrainian President had said that a mass grave with 900 victims had been unearthed. However, the media source later clarified that Zelenskyy was referring to the overall number of individuals discovered in several mass graves around Kyiv Oblast. 

Hundreds of people have been slain by Russian soldiers in the region, according to the news agency. Further, in a tweet post, Kyiv Independent corrected that a spokesperson of the Ukrainian President said, “Zelensky had been referring to the total number of people found in different mass graves in Kyiv Oblast.” 

These statements of Zelenskyy came during an interview with Polish media. According to a Ukraine Pravda report, Zelenskyy said in the interview, “so many civilians were killed that despite the fact that they (the Russians) burned (some of the corpses in mobile crematoria), another mass grave has been found in Kyiv Region with the bodies of 900 civilians. 900 people!” 

Zelenskyy claimed that there is no way of knowing how many individuals have died

Zelenskyy further added that sometimes, international institutions can be quite slow to respond, and occasionally, individuals cannot be held responsible owing to a lack of proof, despite the presence of eyewitnesses and the fact that everyone witnessed the crime. He even claimed that there is no way of knowing how many individuals have died. He went on to say, “There will be consequences, there will be an investigation, then there will be a census. We have to find all these people (killed by the Russian occupation forces) – but we do not even know how many there are!" Ukraine Pravda reported.  

Furthermore, the Kyiv Independent reported on Friday that three Russian missiles had struck Kyiv Oblast. As per Oleksandr Pavlyuk, chief of the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration, the missiles targeted unidentified infrastructure facilities near the city of Fastiv in Kyiv Oblast. 

Meanwhile, on a visit to Borodyanka, Ukraine, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the ongoing conflict "an absurdity" and said he could imagine his family in one of the rooms that has now been completely devastated. 

Following his visit to Moscow, the UN Secretary-General landed in Ukraine on Wednesday. Taking to Twitter, UN Chief Guterres stated that the UN will continue to strive to provide humanitarian supplies to the war-torn nation and to ensure the safe removal of civilians from war zones. 

(Image: AP)