Ukraine will fight for its independence, says army chief

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine will continue to fight for its independence, the chief of the army said on Sunday, a year after bodies of civilians were found in Bucha after Russian troops retreated.

“We will continue to fight for the independence of our nation,” Valery Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram. Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, a commuter town northwest of Kyiv, on March 31, 2022 -- just over a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine -- and left a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

AFP journalists on April 2 last year discovered the bodies of at least 20 people in civilian clothing, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lying in a street of the suburb. Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian troops of carrying out war crimes, pointing to extensive footage and witness accounts.

Prosecutors in Kyiv say that Russian forces killed some 1,400 civilians around Bucha and that they have identified dozens of Russian soldiers responsible. Moscow has claimed atrocities carried out in Bucha were staged.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles hit a densely populated area of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka on Sunday, killing six people, police said. There was a large crater in a yard and windows were shattered from ground to top floors in two 14-storey tower blocks, while nearby private houses had smashed roofs, AFP journalists saw.

Donetsk regional police said that Russia fired S-300 and Uragan missiles in a “massive attack” involving six strikes just after 10 am local time (0700 GMT). Kostyantynivka is around 27-km from the city of Bakhmut, where the war´s heaviest fighting is continuing. Prosecutors said three women and three men aged from late 40s to mid-60s were killed, while eight more were injured.