Germany claims that Russian radio mentioned the Bucha massacre

Germany claims to have intercepted radio communications in which Russian forces discussed the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine.

The German magazine Der Spiegel, which broke the story on Thursday, said the country’s foreign intelligence branch, the BND, overheard communications between Russian soldiers discussing shooting civilians.

According to The Washington Post, citing an intelligence officer familiar with the data, Russian forces discuss questioning Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and then killing them in two separate exchanges.

Some of the intercepted intelligence appears to correspond to the locations of bodies discovered along the main route through Bucha, northwest of Kyiv.

In one intercepted transmission, it appears like a soldier is heard informing another that they shot a civilian riding a bicycle.

Following the evacuation of Russian soldiers from the Bucha region, images of a dead person laying next to a bicycle have just surfaced.

A guy is overheard stating in another recorded discussion, “First you question troops, then you shoot them.”

Russia has categorically denied any involvement in the horrors in Bucha, alleging that the bodies seen on the ground were “fabricated.”

According to Der Spiegel, “the intercepted comments now appear to utterly undermine Russia’s assertions.”

Images of horrors surfacing from Bucha have fueled calls for investigations for alleged war crimes.

The UN Security Council denounced the Bucha massacres, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reminded the Council last week that further crimes were taking place in other towns occupied by Russian military.

The BND also appears to have discovered proof that Wagner Group members, a Russian mercenary force with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cronies, played a key part in the crimes in Ukraine. During Syria’s civil war, the Wagner Group is accused of committing crimes.

As per the intelligence officer who talked to the Washington Post, Germany also has satellite photographs that appear to demonstrate Russia’s role in the deaths of civilians in Bucha.

According to persons familiar with the matter, German intelligence authorities informed members of at least two parliamentary committees on the findings on April 6, according to the Washington Post.

According to the publication, Russian forces’ dependence on unprotected communication equipment, such as cellphones and push-to-talk radios, has made them exposed to eavesdropping.

The German federal prosecutor’s office started an investigation into potential war crimes committed by Russian forces last month.

Berlin is relying on the concept of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to pursue genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed by foreign persons on foreign soil.

Germany has utilised this approach to prosecute a former intelligence official in Syrian President Bashar al-administration. Assad’s Anwar Raslan, the official, was sentenced to life in jail after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for his involvement in torturing Syrians.

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