Ukraine identifies Russian commander as suspect in Bucha killings

By Anthony Deutsch

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Ukraine said it had identified a Russian commander as a suspect in some of the killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in 2022, calling it a vital step towards establishing the chain of command behind the mass executions of civilians there.

Russian forces left bodies lying in the streets when they fled Bucha after occupying the town for a month at the start of the all-out invasion of Ukraine. More than 450 bodies were recovered from mass graves in Bucha town and hundreds of people were killed in the wider area, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian prosecutors have previously issued notices of suspicion - a procedural step towards a possible arrest warrant - for dozens of Russian soldiers in the Bucha case but said their latest one was the first for a commander in the Russian military.

"The notice of suspicion served to a commander of a unit of the Russian Armed Forces marks a fundamentally important step towards justice for the systematic and large-scale war crimes committed in Bucha," Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Andrii Leshchenko said in a statement issued by a legal foundation helping Ukraine. The Kremlin has described the Bucha events as "a set-up and a fake".

LAWYERS NAME THE COMMANDER

The Russian commander was named in another part of the same statement by international law foundation Global Rights Compliance, which said it was citing details of the notice.

"The evidence shows that Yurii Vladimirovich Kim is suspected of being criminally responsible for 17 killings and four instances of ill-treatment purposely committed by forces under his command in Bucha," Global Rights Compliance said.

The foundation cited the Ukrainian notice of suspicion as saying that Kim was commander of a platoon in the 76th Air Assault Division of the Russian military. Ukrainian prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment on details of the case.

Kim was not in Ukrainian custody, said Jeremy Pizzi, legal advisor at Global Rights Compliance.

Russia's defence ministry did not respond to questions about the case and Reuters was unable to reach Kim directly.

A Reuters investigation published in May 2022 highlighted the role of the 76th Air Assault Division, among other units, in events in Bucha.

The foundation said Kim's alleged responsibility was based on an investigation that included witness testimonies, crime scene forensics and open-source intelligence and that it had reviewed the case.

It said the information gathered evidenced multiple instances where "Kim specifically ordered his forces to hunt, harm, and kill individuals perceived as supporting or assisting Ukrainian armed or security forces. After the civilian killings had taken place, evidence shows the commander ordered his subordinates to burn some of the bodies to conceal the crime."

Ukrainian police said the investigation showed that Ukraine was determined to uphold justice.

"We have moved beyond bringing low-ranking perpetrators to account — now we are uncovering the chain of command decisions through which ordinary orders turned into mass executions of civilians," said Maksym Tsutskiridze, first deputy head of the National Police and head of the Investigation Department.

The foundation said the evidence uncovered in the case suggested a systematic plan that implied involvement by the Russian leadership and was a building block towards the further investigations that would be needed to determine this.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; editing by Philippa Fletcher)