“Even while taking the maximum precautions that I should take” as head of state, “I can say that they are the war crimes of the Russians,” the French president told online media outlet Pruitt, adding that French “gendarmes and judges” were sent to help the Ukrainians prove that.
“We are all confused, shocked and outraged by the pictures we saw in Bucha a few days ago, in Kramatorsk today and we also saw them in Mariupol and Kharkiv,” he added. “Unfortunately in other cities we will find out.”
He stressed that “the French services, along with other agencies, succeeded in dismantling the lie of the Russian state, which was saying that it was not Russia” that committed atrocities against civilians in Ukrainian cities.
He continued: “I want evidence to be collected,” stressing that “that is why we sent members of the gendarmerie and cooperating judges to help (…) collect evidence that proves the guilt of the Russian soldiers and the identities of these Russian soldiers.”
“We were able, through satellite images, to prove that the Russian army was present,” he said, without specifying which city he was talking about.
And he considered that “the war that Russia decided to launch against the Ukrainian people has changed its nature in recent days, since we see very well that they have publicly decided to carry out operations against civilians in a systematic manner, with rape scenes being documented, and with atrocities” against civilians.
Macron expressed his intention that France would help the Ukrainian judiciary “in the event that it is partially prevented from going to the International Criminal Court to obtain verdicts.”
At least 50 people, including five children, were killed on Friday in a missile attack on the Kramatorsk station in the east of the country, where civilians are being evacuated, according to the region’s governor.
Moscow immediately denied responsibility for the strike, asserting that it did not possess this type of missile used, and accused Kyiv of “orchestrating” the strike to prevent civilians from escaping.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the strike amounted to a “crime against humanity”.
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