ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Satellite images show civilian deaths in Ukraine town while it was in Russian hands: Maxar

Share

Satellite images taken weeks ago of the town of Bucha in Ukraine show bodies of civilians on a street, a private U.S. company said, undercutting the Russian government's claims that Ukrainian forces caused the deaths or that the scene was staged.

provided nine images taken of Bucha on March 18, 19 and 31 to Reuters. At least four of the images appear to show bodies on one of the town's roads, Yablonska Street. The city was occupied by Russian forces until about March 30.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the dead bodies were "staged" and that images of them and what he said was Ukraine's false version of events had been spread on social media by Western countries and Ukraine.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's envoy to the United Nations, said Moscow would present "empirical evidence" to the Security Council that its forces have not been killing civilians in Ukraine and were not involved in events in Bucha.

The Security Council is to meet later on Tuesday.

The New York Times, which was provided a separate set of images from Bucha by Maxar, analyzed the pictures in a , comparing them to video taken at street level that showed the same scenes, and confirming the locations of the bodies. Its analysis, it said, confirmed the accuracy of the satellite images.

"High-resolution Maxar satellite imagery collected over Bucha, Ukraine (northwest of Kyiv) verifies and corroborates recent social media videos and photos that reveal bodies lying in the streets and left out in the open for weeks," Maxar said in an e-mail to Reuters, which also included analysis of the images.

Ukraine authorities have accused Russian forces of carrying out a "massacre" in Bucha and say that 300 residents were killed there during a month-long occupation. Ukrainian troops re-took the town last week.

Jeffrey Lewis, a satellite imagery expert who has seen the Maxar images, described the process of deducing what the images meant as "very straightforward."

"You see pictures on the ground that show bodies relative to cars and buildings, and in satellite images, you can see the lumps on the ground in the same position next to the same cars and buildings.

"What the satellite images show is that the bodies were present while the Russians controlled the area," said Lewis, who is director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

This image is one of four images, in a time series of satellite images from Maxar that focus on Yablonska Street in Bucha. The first three image views correlate with the video path shown on social media, referenced in the article. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies.)

This image is part of a time series of satellite images from Maxar that focus on Yablonska Street in Bucha. The image views correlate with the video path shown on social media, referenced in the article (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies) 

This image is also Yablonska Street in Bucha, but rotated.(Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies)

This image is also Yablonska Street in Bucha, but rotated.(Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies)

The Pentagon said on Monday it could not independently confirm the accounts of atrocities but had no reason to dispute them.

A Reuters reporter saw several dead civilians in the town, including one with his hands bound behind him. Local residents said hundreds of civilians had been killed.

Bucha's deputy mayor, Taras Shapravskyi, said 50 of the dead residents, found after Russian forces withdrew from the city late last week, were the victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops. Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have accused Moscow of war crimes.

"These are war crimes and will be recognized by the world as genocide," Zelenskiy said, speaking on television from Bucha, wearing body armor and surrounded by military personnel.

The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, drew pledges of further sanctions against Moscow from the West, possibly including some restrictions on the billions of dollars in energy that Europe still imports from Russia.

President Joe Biden has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes and called for a war crimes trial.

(Reporting by Gerry Doyle; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

DEVELOPING

DEVELOPING Here's what we know about Israel's latest strike in Beirut

Smoke is rising over Lebanon’s capital of Beirut Friday after Israel’s military struck southern suburbs – a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.