'I won't leave him': Ukrainian mother weeps after finding corpse of her young son at roadside grave in Bucha

Image Credit: The Strait Times

KYIV: As Ukrainian authorities have begun to exhume a mass grave in Bucha to ascertain the alleged war crimes committed by the Russian troops, more shocking and devastating images from the Kyiv commuter town have come to the fore.

The Strait Times published a heart-wrenching story about a Ukrainian mother crying inconsolably after finding the corpse of her young son at a roadside grave in Bucha. The distraught mother named Lyudmyla found the corpse of her dead son Yevhenii at a roadside grave behind a razed petrol station in Bucha.

She had found the corpse of her adult son inside a manhole lying with another man. The Ukrainian mother found the body of his 23-year-old son warped by water, shrouded in sediment and eclipsed by an army sleeping mat.

As the Ukrainian investigators tried to move her away from the manhole, she resisted shouting “my little son" and urged the authorities to let her see him “for a while.’’

The poor woman had recognized her son by his distinctive footwear, claimed the report. "I won't leave," she cried, hugging the ground where her son's remains had been dumped out of sight.

The Ukrainian investigators have begun to assess the alleged war crimes committed by the Russian forces after Russian President Vladimir Putin called off his northern offensive to capture the capital of Kyiv.

It is alleged the Russian troops committed serious war crimes by shooting civilians, crushing them under tanks and raping mothers in front of their sons in the street.

The Kremlin, however, has categorically denied any hand in the slayings, denouncing photos of the dead as fakery. But shocking and devastating images and stories from the villages, towns and roads on the northwest flank of Kyiv claim otherwise.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned his nation that the coming week would be as crucial as any in the war. "Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video address.

"They may use even more missiles against us, even more air bombs. But we are preparing for their actions. We will answer," he added. He accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes and again called on Western countries to provide more assistance to Ukraine. 

"When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters. And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them. Ukraine will stop all this," Zelenskyy said.