UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday visited sites of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, decrying war as “an absurdity in the 21st century” and urging Russia to cooperate with an international investigation into suspected atrocities. Making his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February, Guterres toured several towns and villages outside Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of killing civilians.
“I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic,” the UN chief said in Borodianka, a ruined town north-east of the Ukrainian capital.
“The war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil,” he added.
In neighbouring Bucha, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied behind their backs, were discovered this month after a Russian withdrawal, Guterres backed an International Criminal Court investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
