The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the deaths of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Butcha showed the inhuman face of the Russian army, and pledged to support Kiev in the fight to defend Europe's borders.
During her visit to Butza, where investigators have begun exhuming bodies from a mass grave, Ursula von der Leyen was visibly shocked by what she saw in a town where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian troops.
Russia denies attacks on civilians in its troop invasion of Ukraine, which began six weeks ago. It rejects accusations that Russian forces executed civilians in Butchnya after taking the city, calling it a monstrous falsification aimed at discrediting the Russian military.
Speaking to reporters in Bucha, the Commission President said that the European Union would do everything to support Ukraine in the necessary steps to ensure its EU membership which is urgently sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The unthinkable has happened here. We have seen the inhuman face of Putin's army. We saw the recklessness and the coldness with which they had taken over the city, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Butza.
The whole world is mourning with the people of Butza and they are the ones who are defending the borders of Europe, defending humanity, defending democracy. And for this reason, we are at their side in this important struggle, she said.
The images from Butch, which was captured along with other towns north of the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces redeployed to focus their operations in eastern Ukraine, gave new impetus to Western efforts to punish Moscow for the February 24 invasion.
Just hours before Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kiev, more than 50 people were killed and many wounded in a rocket attack on a train station overrun by civilians who had arrived from eastern Ukraine.
The European Commission president's trip to Kiev was intended to offer Zelensky moral and (some) financial support.
Travelling by train from Brussels to Kiev, she told reporters that the most important message she was sending was that the path to Ukraine's EU membership was open.
For his part, European diplomacy chief Josep Borel told reporters that the visit demonstrates that Ukraine is in control of its territory.
There is a government that receives visitors from abroad and one can travel to Kiev, Borel continued, adding that he hoped the EU would offer an additional 500 million euros to Ukraine in the coming days.
Zelensky reiterated that the war is a direct attack not only on Ukraine's very existence but also on the security of Europe as a whole.
Source: CNA
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