Russia-Ukraine live updates: Zelensky calls for help investigating ‘butchers and looters’

ODESSA, Ukraine — Haunting images of bodies littering the streets of a Kyiv suburb and reports of civilian executions are triggering new international condemnation against Russia as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded accountability for what he said amounts to “genocide.”

Ukrainian officials said they have asked the International Criminal Court to visit the mass graves seen in Bucha, a suburb northwest of the capital, so experts can gather evidence of possible Russian war crimes. European leaders supported the call for an independent investigation and pledged to hold Russia accountable for what NATO’s secretary general described as “brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for decades.”

The calls for retribution came as Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be regrouping and shifting his focus away from Kyiv, near where Ukrainian forces are recapturing territory, and toward the country’s south and east.

Zelensky said Ukrainians are being “destroyed and exterminated” because they refuse to be subdued by Russian forces.

“This is genocide,” Zelensky said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”