Amnesty International says it has found evidence of war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine

Amnesty International announced Friday that it has evidence of alleged war crimes committed earlier this yearby Russian forces in the Kyiv region during the invasion of Ukraine.

Investigators from the human rights group have been documenting alleged war crimes in eight cities around the Ukrainian capital since the end of February.

The names of some of those places may already be familiar. They includeBucha and Borodyanka, where Ukrainian authorities and the international media shocked the world with images of bound and slaughtered civilians and mass graves.

Amnesty International has interviewed survivors and collectedevidence, said Agns Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general.

"In other words, we know that the crimes committed against people living around here are not merely anecdotal," she told a news conference in Kyiv following the release of the investigation report. "We know they are part of a pattern that has characterized Russia's conduct of the hostilities from the outset."

Spent ammunition matched with Russian military units

The human rights group said that, as part of itsforensic study, it matched specific samples of spent ammunition with specific elite Russian military units accused of carrying out the atrocities.

Amnesty said it has documented unlawful airstrikes on Borodyanka that killed as many as 40 people.

The attacks were disproportionate and indiscriminate,devastated an entire neighbourhood and left thousands of people homeless, the report concluded.

In Bucha and several other towns and villages northwest of Kyiv, Amnesty International said it documented 22 cases of unlawful killings by Russian forces most of which appeared to beextrajudicial executions.

Many of those cases and the heartbreaking stories of the familiesinvolved played out in front of Yulia, a clerk at a tiny shop called Memory Kings, which is tuckedbehind the city's morgue. Every day she looks out the window at two tractor trailer refrigerators where bodies have been stored.

She said Russian troops in the first wavewere respectful, but those who followed were cruel. She said that although she never witnessed an atrocity directly, both she and herhusband saw bodies piling up in the street.

Yuliasaid they wanted to go out and collect them, and even commandeered a wheelbarrow to do so beforea Russian soldier stopped them and threatened them.

"'If you touch them, you'll be next,' he told us," said Yulia, who spoke with CBC News and gave only her first name.

Life since the invasion, she said, hastaken on an unreal, dreamlike quality she can't believe what hashappened to her community and toother Ukrainian communitiesthat are either occupied or under direct bombardment.

"And now in Kharkiv and Mariupol, children and women are now struggling," she said. "I understand.I feelwhat they are feeling.I understandwhat they're feeling in Mariupoland Kharkiv."

WATCH | Building a case for war crimes in Bucha:

Building a case for war crimes amid horror, loss in Bucha

2 years ago

Duration 2:09

Warning: This story contains graphic details | The bodies of civilians killed in Bucha are still being processed in a morgue as survivors recount the horror of Russia's takeover and officials continue to build a case for war crimes.

"It is vital that all those responsible, including up the chain of command, are brought to justice," said Callamard.

Dozens of witnesses interviewed

Amnesty investigators interviewed 45 people who witnessed or had first-hand knowledge of unlawful killings of their relatives and neighbours by Russian soldiers, and 39 others who witnessed or had first-hand knowledge ofairstrikes that targeted eight residential buildings.

"All of it. The aggression. The bombardment. The wanton killing. The ruined villages and cities. All of it is a choice that did not have to be made," Callamard said.

She warned that the ability of Ukraine and the international community to investigate so many atrocities at once is being stretched to the limit. The world, Callamard said, has not averted its gaze from Ukraine but she blasted those who've downplayed, dismissed or excusedatrocities.

Amnesty also acknowledged it had looked at allegations by Russian authorities that Russian prisoners of war were mistreated by the Ukrainians.

Specifically, it examined a video that circulated online and established that it is authentic.

Callamard said her organization doesn't discriminate and believes that all possible war crimes deserve a full investigation.

Amnesty noted that a recent Ukrainian law that mandates co-operation with the International Criminal Court on war crimes investigations specifically excludes allegations made against Ukrainian forces.

Callamard said any justice processes or mechanisms needto be as comprehensive as possible, and ensure that all perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocideand the crime of aggression in Ukraine are brought to justice in fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.