Tragic new images surfaced Sunday of the bodies of executed civilians in the streets of a suburb of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv — with President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming, “Indeed, this is genocide.’’
The bodies were discovered after Russian troops pulled out of Bucha and included children, women raped and set afire and men tortured and executed by being shot in the head while their hands were tied behind their backs, Ukraine said. Among the dead were local officials, the country said.
One newly discovered mass grave contained about 300 bodies, Ukrainian officials said.
“Indeed, this is genocide,” Zelensky told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “The elimination of the whole nation, of the people.
“We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than a hundred nationalities. This is about destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.
“We don’t want to be subdued to the policy of the Russian Federation. This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated. And this is happening in the Europe of the 21st century. So this is the torture of the whole nation,” Zelensky said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken wouldn’t say whether the atrocities committed in Bucha or elsewhere in Ukraine constitute genocide, but he cautioned against allowing such horrors to become normalized.
“You can’t help but see these images as a punch to the gut,” Blinken said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
A woman walks as smoke rises in the air in the background after shelling in Odessa, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
America’s top diplomat said the administration believed that even before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, its troops would “commit atrocities,” including war crimes, and has been working to document the evidence.
“But I think the most important thing is we can’t become numb to this. We can’t normalize this,” Blinken said.
This is the reality of what’s going on every single day. As long as Russia’s brutality against Ukraine continues. That’s why it needs to come to an end.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “Indeed, this is genocide.”AFP via Getty Images 
A woman hugs a Ukrainian serviceman after a convoy of military and aid vehicles arrived in Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda 
Numerous bodies were discovered after Russian troops pulled out of Bucha.AFP via Getty Images
He was asked if the savagery in Ukraine constitutes genocide.
“We will look hard and document everything that we see, put it all together, make sure that the relevant institutions and organizations that are looking at this, including the State Department, have everything they need to assess exactly what took place in Ukraine, who is responsible and what it amounts to,” Blinken said.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the images from Bucha “unbearable.
“In the streets, hundreds of cowardly murdered civilians. … The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes,” he tweeted.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he would “strongly welcome” an investigation by the International Criminal Court into the deaths in Bucha.
“It is a brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for decades. And it’s horrific and it’s absolutely unacceptable that civilians are targeted and killed. And it just underlines the importance that this war must end,” Stoltenberg said on CNN when asked if the act was genocide.
But Russia’s Defense Ministry dismissed the atrocities as “fake” in a statement posted on Telegram on Sunday.
The statement suggested the images were part of a “media campaign” and questioned why they were not released for days after Russian forces began retreating from the capital city.
“Given that the troops left the city on March 30, where were these videos for 4 days? Their absence only confirms the fake,” officials said.
A journalist takes video of a mass grave in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv.AP 
A worker of a funeral service uncovers a body of killed civilian in Ukraine, April 1, 2022.REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko 
Ukrainian Soldiers inspect destroyed Russian military machinery.EPA
The chilling snaps came as:
- Russian forces launched more than 20 airstrikes on the city of Kharkiv and its outskirts in the country’s northeast, wounding at least four people, local officials said. Russia also bombed the Black Sea port of Odessa in southern Ukraine, targeting an oil-processing plant and fuel depots in the area. Odessa is home to the country’s largest port and its navy.
- Russia’s chief peace negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, balked at a Ukrainian suggestion that his president, Vladimir Putin, and Zelensky could soon hold direct talks, as was reported Saturday. Medinsky said the two sides are still too far apart over Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and the Ukrainian region of Donbas, where Putin has particularly been trying to take over.
- White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “far from over,” despite the Kremlin’s claim that it was pulling back from several areas amid negotiations. “I think there’s a lot of evidence that Putin is simply taking his troops out of the northern part of the country to redeploy them to the eastern part of the country to relaunch a battle there,” Klain told ABC’s “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
- The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said in a tweet that more European Union sanctions against Russia “are on their way,’’ adding that he was “shocked by haunting images of atrocities” committed by Russia’s army.
- Two Russian soldiers died and dozens more sickened after they were apparently poisoned by stuffed buns given to them by Ukrainians near the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine intelligence officials said.
Russia had announced last week that it would “radically” reduce its attacks around Kyiv and the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv as a goodwill gesture amid talks.
But Ukraine has warned that it does not mean the cities wouldn’t be targeted again, and the US and its allies said the move could likely just mean Putin is regrouping.
Tanya Nedashkivska, reacts as she mourns her husband Vasyl Ivanovych, who served in the navy, and was killed by Russian soldiers.REUTERS 
Dead bodies lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, on April 2, 2022.AFP via Getty Images 
A body of a civilian with his hands tied behind his back lies in the street as a communal worker prepares a plastic body bag to carry him to a waiting car in the town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, on April 3, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
The northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv is now also about 70% destroyed after assaults by Russian troops, said the city’s mayor, Vladyslav Atroshekno.
Ukraine said it was working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to try again for a mass evacuation of civilians from battered Mariupol, after three days of failed attempts. Tens of thousands of people remain trapped with little access to water there, Ukraine said.
On Saturday, Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was best known for his documentary “Mariupolis,” was killed by Russian forces as he tried to flee the city o, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda also confirmed his death.
“We lost a creator well known in Lithuania and in the whole world who, until the very last moment, in spite of danger, worked in Russia-occupied Ukraine,” Nauseda said.