As Russian soldiers retreat, they leave evidence of war crimes

THE LAST time that Andriy Dvornikov spoke to his common-law wife was on March 5th. He called, speaking very quietly, to say he was in trouble. He had been trapped at a Ukrainian checkpoint in Bucha, a suburb to the north-west of Kyiv, when it came under artillery fire. He was taking shelter in the basement of a nearby house along with seven other men.One of them, Ivan Skyba, described what happened next. Russian soldiers found the group later that day and moved them to a base. They were told to take their clothes off and lie face down. Their captors searched their telephones and bodies for symbols and tattoos. To make the Ukrainians talk, the Russians killed one of them— “a short, bespectacled guy from Ivano-Frankivsk”, in Mr Skyba’s words.