Ukrainian officials and local residents said the mayor of a small town was executed along with her husband and son by invading Russian forces, which had occupied the area until recently. Mayor Olga Sucheko and her family were shot and thrown into a pit in a forest behind a multi-house property that Russian forces then took over in the town of Motyzhyn, they said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains images of dead bodies that may offend some readers.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Sunday that Sucheko and her husband, who were reportedly kidnapped by Russian forces on March 23, were “killed in captivity.”
A resident of the city, which is about 50 kilometers west of Kyiv in an area recently deserted by Russian forces, told The Associated Press that Russian forces targeted local officials to win them over and would have killed them if they hadn’t collaborated.
The fourth body found in the pit had not been identified, but was believed to be a member of the Ukrainian security forces.
(EDITORS NOTE: Image depicts death) Partially covered bodies of Mayor Olga Sucheko, her husband and son, and another man are seen where they were discovered buried in a shallow grave in the forest after Ukrainian troops raided the area recaptured by Russian troops in the village of Motyzhyn, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty
“The scum killed her, her son and her husband after torturing them,” Ukraine’s Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said in a message published on the Telegram social media app.
Journalists from the AP and Reuters news agencies saw the bodies of four people who appeared to have been shot at close range and thrown into the pit in Motyzhyn, and local residents at the scene confirmed that the mayor and her family were among the tied, blindfolded victims.
Ukrainian forces showed journalists the grave in Motyzhyn as international outrage over another alleged Russian atrocity in the Kyiv suburbs grew by the hour. Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy visited the city of Bucha on Monday, where he saw first-hand evidence of mass killings allegedly carried out by the Russian invaders. A regional official said about 300 civilians were massacred in Bucha before Russia withdrew its forces from the city late last week, many of whom were buried in a shallow mass grave.
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