Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the world that following the massacre discovered in Bucha, the situation in neighboring Borodyanka will be "more dreadful" after authorities found 26 dead bodies among the rubble in the area on Thursday.
Vadim Shandrenko is among those who are looking for the remains of friends and family members and is searching for his friend, Volodymyr. The latter is believed to have been inside his home which is now under a collapsed apartment building. The structure was struck by Russian airstrikes and Russian soldiers would not let Shandrenko search the area.
"More Dreadful" Than Bucha
Local residents also said that the Russian forces in the area were responsible for blowing up a bridge while they were fleeing the city. People from the nearby village of Termakhivka said that Russian soldiers also looted everything from clothing and silverware to refrigerators and washing machines from their homes.
The region is roughly 30 miles away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world. Russians fleeing the area who were responsible for the looting are believed to be the ones who dug trenches that exposed them to highly significant doses of radiation, as per CBS News.
Ukrainian officials previously said that roughly 300 people were killed by Russian forces in Bucha and 50 of whom are believed to have been executed. However, Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and argues that satellite images and on-the-ground videos showing dead bodies were staged by the Ukrainian government.
Read Also: Russia-Ukraine Crisis: German Intelligence Intercepts Russian Radio Comms on Bucha Massacre
In Zelensky's late-night national address, he said that the work of dismantling debris in the Borodyanka region suggests it could be much worse than Bucha. However, the Ukrainian president did not provide further details or release evidence that Russian troops were responsible for the civilian deaths.
According to The Guardian, Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said on Thursday that the 26 bodies were discovered under two ruined buildings in the region. However, she did not say if the authorities had already established a cause of death for the victims.
Russian Brutality
The situation comes after Germany said its intelligence intercepted Russian radio messages where troops discussed the Bucha killings in Ukraine. The country's foreign intelligence service, the BND, allegedly obtained conversations among Russian soldiers.
One of the intercepted messages involved a soldier seemingly telling one of his colleagues that they had shot an individual riding a bicycle. The images showing the Bucha massacre included a dead body lying next to a bicycle.
The governor of Ukraine's Sumy region, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, also said that residents in the area were free of Russian oppression but still had to be careful due to potential landmines left behind. The official warned the people not to drive on the roadsides and not to use forest roads. He also urged against approaching destroyed equipment or orc sites to keep themselves safe.
Zhyvytskyi added that if people heard explosions, which have been frequent in recent days, it was because of rescuers and explosives. He said that authorities were working on neutralizing the ammunition that Russian forces left in the region, Aljazeera reported.
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