France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a tribute ceremony at the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, southern France, on March 20, 2022, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the attacks perpetrated by Mohamed Merah which killed seven people in 2012. - Merah, a French delinquent who had turned to fundamentalism, killed a French soldier on March 11, 2012, two others on March 15 and three children and a teacher in a Jewish school on March 19, 2012. He was killed during the assault of his appartment by French special police forces on March 21, 2012. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
BY Ebunoluwa Olafusi
French President Emmanuel Macron says there are clear indications that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Macron called for more sanctions on Monday, following the alleged killings of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops.
Viral videos from Bucha, a town in Ukraine, showed the streets littered with corpses, with some having their hands tied behind their backs.
The bodies were found after Russian troops withdrew from the town.
According to the mayor of Bucha, more than 300 residents were killed during Russia’s occupation of the town.
The killings have drawn international outrage, with Western leaders calling for war crimes investigations.
“There are very clear clues pointing to war crimes. It is more or less established that the Russian army is responsible (for the Bucha killings),” Macron told a French radio station.
“What happened in Bucha demands a new round of sanctions and very clear measures.”
Russia has denied that its forces were responsible for the deaths of civilians in Bucha.
The country’s ministry of defense claimed that the video footage was “fake” and that “not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions” during Russia’s occupation of the town.
“Stories about Bucha appeared in several foreign media outlets at once, which looks like a planned media campaign,” the defense ministry said.
“Taking into account that the troops left the city on March 30, where was the footage for four days? Their absence only confirms the fake.
“In the settlements of the Kyiv region, Russian military personnel delivered and issued 452 tons of humanitarian aid to civilians.”
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