*Refugees from Artyomovsk, April 2023. Photo: Eva K Bartlett

June 7, 2023, RT.com

-Eva K Bartlett

Since Russia began its military campaignin Ukraine in February 2022, Western media and the authorities in Kiev have bombarded the world with accusations of“war crimes,”includingkidnapping childrenand targeting civilians.

But the testimonies of recently evacuated civilians from Artyomovsk (also know as Bakhmut) – like those of civilians in Mariupol and other areas – once again suggest Ukraine is guilty of the very war crimes its officials level at Russia.

In late April, survivors of Ukrainian bombing in Artyomovsk spoke to myself and my colleague Christelle Néant about the horror they had endured on April 11, when Kiev’s forces blew up the ground floor of their apartment building, burying the civilians sheltering in the basement below. Seven of the seventeen civilians in that basement died almost immediately, including a seven-year-old child.