Former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has spoken of his horror at the slaughter of hundreds of Ukrainian citizens whose bodies were dumped in mass graves by Russian troops.
Mr Ban recounted his visit to Ukraine last month at the invitation of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We visited Bucha and Irpin where Russian soldiers ruthlessly killed civilian people randomly. I was horrified by these atrocities. This is totally unacceptable,” he told The Independent on Tuesday.
In the early weeks of the invasion, Russian ground troops attempted to capture the capital Kyiv but were repelled by Ukrainian forces.
In March, hundreds of civilians were found dead in Bucha and Irpin, two areas to the northwest of the capital. Photographs and video showed corpses piled into trenches and left in the streets. Ukrainian authorities say 458 bodies were found in the Bucha area, including 12 children.
A number of the victims were unable to be identified and buried in graves marked only with numbers, not names, it was reported last month.
“We have spoken out in the strongest possible terms that justice should be brought, and there should be accountability. Those people who committed this kind of crime must be brought to justice,” Mr Ban told The Independent. “If not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, soon in the future.”
He added: “I again urge Russia to stop this illegal aggression, and work for peace and stability of the Ukrainian people.”
Mr Ban served as UN secretary general from 2007 until 2016 and now co-chairs the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.
He visited Bucha and Irpin with Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia, in their capacity as members of The Elders. The non-governmental initiative, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, works to promote peace and human rights around the world.
The leaders visited a church in Bucha, where 116 bodies were found in a mass grave after Russian soldiers pulled out. Mr Santos, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate like the late South African leader, described the massacre as a crime against humanity.
More than six months after Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, Ukraine continues to fend off the larger, more powerful Russian army, bolstered by military aid from allies including the United States, the UK and other European countries.
“Strong solidarity should be shown by the world’s people to the people of Ukraine,” Mr Ban said. “I was very humbled, and very much encouraged at the same time, by such a strong resilience to keep their country’s sovereignty [and] territorial integrity. I think they have the right to self-defence. We need to render all support available in our hands.”
Russian leader Vladimir Putin continues to rebuff pressure to stop the war, and brushed off foreign sanctions this week saying his military would continue attacks.
Global leaders along with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, have urged both sides to secure a safe zone after shelling continued near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Wednesday.
