The corpses of a missing Ukrainian mayor, her husband, and her child were recovered in a shallow grave, according to recently released images and Ukrainian officials.
Olga Sukhenko, mayor of the suburb of Motyzhyn outside of Kyiv, was initially kidnapped by Russian forces alongside her husband and son on March 23, Ukrainian officials said.
The Russians “tortured and murdered the whole family of the village head,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry.
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“The occupiers suspected they were collaborating with our military, giving us locations of where to target our artillery,” Herashchenko said. “These scum tortured, slaughtered, and killed the whole family.”
The bodies of Sukhenko, her husband, Ihor Sukhenko, and her son, Oleksandr, were uncovered by a reporter on a farm outside of Motyzhyn, according to a report.
One body had its head taped, the report noted, and a fourth body was found tied up.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk verified Sukhenko’s murder and said at least 11 community officials are being held captive by the Russians across the nation.
Satellite images of mass graves, including a 45-foot trench seen Monday, have been released to the public throughout the past month, leading to strong condemnation by foreign leaders.
Those responsible must “answer these alleged cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and, why not say it, of genocide, too,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Russia is a “totalitarian-fascist state,” and “the bloody massacres perpetrated by Russian soldiers deserve to be called by name: This is genocide,” said Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The images are akin to the acts of the Soviet and Nazi regimes, Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas added.
Photos of murdered civilians in Irpin and Bucha by Russian troops recall the mass killings by Soviet and Nazi regimes.
This is not a battlefield, it’s a crime scene.
Mass killings of Ukrainian civilians by #Russia are clear war crimes. 1/3
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) April 3, 2022
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“This is not a battlefield, it’s a crime scene. Mass killings of Ukrainian civilians by #Russia are clear war crime,” Kallas tweeted.
