Zelenskyy: Russia 'hiding evidence' of mass killings in Ukraine

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of attempting to hide evidence of mass killings in parts of the country they have under their control.

Reports of executions and inhumane conditions have emerged from parts of Ukraine which Vladimir Putin's forces have been occupying.

Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed in their own homes or lined up and shot, with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba saying the evidence of civilian killings from the town of Bucha are just the "tip of the iceberg" and show the need for tougher sanctions on Moscow.

In a video address, Zelenskyy said the Russians are "changing tactics" and attempting to hide evidence of the bodies.

He said: "We have information that the Russian military changed tactics and that they are trying to clear the streets and basements in the occupied territories of the bodies of the dead people, dead Ukrainians.

"It is their efforts to hide the evidence, nothing more. But they will not succeed, because they killed a lot of people."

Russian troops have been pushed out of areas north of Kyiv which have been under their control for a number of weeks.

In the suburb of Bucha, Putin's soldiers have been accused of killing civilians after numerous bodies were found, prompting accusations of a massacre being committed before their withdrawal.

Survivors have reported people being shot down in the street, lined up and executed, raped and tortured.

Ukrainian officials said they had found the bodies of at least 410 civilians, some reported shot with their hands tied behind their backs.

The German government has indications that Russia was involved in the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha based on satellite images, a security source said on Thursday.

German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the intelligence agency had intercepted radio messages from Russian military sources discussing the killing of civilians in Bucha.

“It’s true that the federal government has indications of Russian perpetration in Bucha,” said the source.

“However, these findings on Bucha refer to satellite images. The radio transmissions cannot be clearly assigned to Bucha.”

Russia has refuted claims of mass killings since the town was freed from their control on 31 March, with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claiming footage and images of bodies in the streets were "staged" and Ukrainians had used "fake dead bodies".

However, satellite imagery of the area in the days before Bucha was freed shows at least nine bodies lying in the street for weeks, contradicting Russian claims.

Johnson also said what was happening "doesn't look far short of genocide", as the UK imposed further sanctions on Russia.

“I’m afraid, when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn’t look far short of genocide to me, it is no wonder people are responding in the way that they are," he said.

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Western officials warned such atrocities may be “widespread” pointing to the “toxic information climate” in Russia with calls for the “de-nazification” of Ukraine, with former president Dmitri Medvedev, still a close ally of Putin likening it to the Third Reich.

The war in Ukraine has now been going on for six weeks, with Putin's forces failing to gain any significant cities.

While his troops managed to gain some ground north of Kyiv, they have been forced to withdraw after coming up against fierce opposition from the Ukrainian people.

Western officials said the withdrawal of Russian forces from around the area appeared to be largely complete, but said it could be a “number of weeks” before they were ready for redeployment in the Donbas region – part-held by pro-Russian separatists – which is Moscow’s new focus of operations.

Of the estimated 125 Russian tactical battalion groups at the start of the invasion, 29 were thought to be “combat non-effective” and had been taken out of the line due to the heavy casualties they have suffered.

Nevertheless, officials believe Putin may be determined to achieve some sort of gains which he can hold up as a success by 9 May – the date of the annual military parade in Moscow.

“We believe May 9 is a significant date. One can only imagine there will be a desire to have an announcement of success by that period,” one official said.

“As we saw in the first phase of this campaign, when you have a political imperative which drives things in a particular way, you can end up with military disaster as a consequence.”

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said they were now expecting a “major offensive” by the Russians in the Donbas, as he warned there could be “a long haul” ahead for Ukraine.

Speaking as alliance foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, he said: “We have seen no indication that president Putin has changed his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine and also to rewrite the international order so we need to be prepared for a long haul.”