BERLIN
\nGerman intelligence services have intercepted radio traffic of Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Spiegel reported Thursday, in what would be new evidence linking Moscow troops to the deaths.
\nSome of the audio material collected appears to relate to victims found dead along a main street in Bucha, the magazine said, citing a closed-door parliamentary briefing given by Germany\u2019s foreign intelligence service BND.
\nAmong the intercepts was a soldier\u2019s description of how he and his platoon mates shot a person on a bicycle.
\nAFP journalists on the ground in Bucha saw three bodies tangled up in bicycles among the 20 corpses found along the tree-lined street, after Russian troops withdrew.
\nThe Kremlin has however denied the accusations of mass killings, claiming instead that the images emerging from Bucha were \u201cfakes\u201d or that the deaths occurred after Russian soldiers pulled out.
\nSpiegel said the audio files intercepted by the BND also provided evidence of the Wagner mercenary group\u2019s role in the atrocities.
\nThe killings were also apparently not random acts.
\nRather, the soldiers were discussing the killings \u201cas though they were simply discussing their everyday lives,\u201d said the magazine.
\nThe German government had said on Wednesday that satellite images from last month provided strong counterevidence against Russia\u2019s denials of the atrocities.
\nImages at Berlin\u2019s disposal covered the period from March 10-18 and \u201cled to the conclusion that the victims whose images we all saw were lying there since at least March 10,\u201d said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
\n\u201cReliable evidence shows that Russian fighting and security forces were deployed in this area from March 7 until the 30th,\u201d he said.
\nWhen asked if the satellite images viewed by German officials were from allies or media sources, Hebestreit replied: \u201cThese are our findings but as you know we do not comment on the origin or evaluation of intelligence matters.\u201d
\nThe Group of Seven industrialized nations on Thursday called for Russia to be suspended from the UN\u2019s human rights body over \u201cheinous acts and atrocities\u201d in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN German intelligence services have intercepted radio traffic of Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Spiegel reported Thursday, in what would be new evidence linking Moscow troops to the deaths. Some of the audio material collected appears to relate to victims found dead along a main street in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n