Satellite imagery released Sunday showed new information regarding a mass grave in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.
The images, from Maxar Technologies, show that a mass grave is located at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints.
According to Maxar, the first signs of excavation of the mass grave occurred on March 10th, about two weeks after the war started. Images from March 31st show a major trench near the church. Social media footage showed dozens of dead civilians being buried in the mass grave, the company said.
Bucha is where five weeks of firefights between Russian and Ukrainian forces occurred before Russia withdrew from the town as an alleged move away from Kyiv.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said in a statement that "the Ukrainian city of Bucha was in the hands of [Russian] animals for several weeks. Local civilians were being executed arbitrarily, some with hands tied behind their backs, their bodies scattered in the streets of the city."
Other world leaders have called for a harsher response to Russia after the images were released.
In a Facebook post, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the killings in Bucha a "genocide" and stated that international tribunals should punish those responsible, adding that "the European Union must confiscate Russia’s assets in Western European banks. Confiscate the assets of Russian oligarchs. The Union must break off all commercial relations with Russia as soon as possible. European money must stop flowing to the Kremlin."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement that he would "do everything in my power to starve Putin’s war machine. We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground," and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz called for the Russian military to be investigated and held accountable for its "crimes."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the images a "punch in the gut," telling CNN’s "State of the Union" that "we have said before Russia’s aggression that we thought it was likely that they would commit atrocities. Since the aggression, we have come out and said that we believe that Russian forces have committed war crimes."