Civilians in Ukraine’s Bucha province, near the national capital of Kyiv, were found dead with their hands tied, Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Saturday.
“Bucha, Kyiv region. The bodies of people with tied hands, who were shot dead by Russian soldiers lie in the streets,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
“These people were not in the military. They had no weapons. They posed no threat. How many more such cases are happening right now in the occupied territories?,” he said.
“Russia is waging a war to destroy the Ukrainian nation,” he wrote. “But we do not ask for sympathy. We do not ask for likes. And we are definitely not asking to fight with Russia for us.”
“We ask only one thing: give us weapons so that we can protect civilians. Everything else we will do ourselves,” he added.
The Russian war against Ukraine, which started Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the EU, US, and Britain, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.
At least 1,325 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 2,017 injured, according to UN estimates, with the true figure feared to be far higher.
More than 4.1 million Ukrainians have also fled to other countries, with millions more internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.
