Kyiv will never forgive those responsible for alleged atrocities committed in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, as Ukrainians are marking the first anniversary of the liberation of that town from Russian occupation. Pročitaj više

On this occasion, four European statesmen arrived in Kyiv, including Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Ukrainian forces recaptured the small towns of Bucha and Irpin to the northwest of Kyiv in late March last year as Russian invasion forces abandoned their attempt to seize the capital.

After Ukraine took back control of Bucha, harrowing images of dead bodies lying in the street were seen across the world.

Russia’s occupation of the town lasted 33 days, resulting in more than 1,400 deaths, including 37 children, Kyiv said.

“A symbol of the atrocities of the occupying country’s army. We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

Plenkovic arrived in Kyiv in secrecy on Friday morning, by train, and he is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

This is Plenkovic’s second visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian aggression on February 24, 2022. In May of last year, Plenkovic met with the Ukrainian state leadership in Kyiv, and he visited Irpin and Bucha, where he personally witnessed the consequences of the terrible destruction in which a large number of people died.

International investigators are now collecting evidence in those towns and other places where Ukraine says Russian troops committed large-scale atrocities. Russia denies the allegations.

Residents in Bucha told Reuters this week of the deep psychological wounds left by the occupation and said it would take generations to get over it.

Some buildings remain battered in the town and a scrapyard is full of cars and military vehicles destroyed during last year’s fighting.

“We should understand that it’s easy to rebuild walls, but it’s much harder to rebuild a wounded soul,” said Andriy Holovin, a priest at a Ukrainian Orthodox parish.