New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern. (File photo| AP)
WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday described reports of rape and other atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine as "reprehensible".
Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture lay scattered in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area.
Ukrainian authorities accused the departing forces on Sunday of committing war crimes and leaving behind a "scene from a horror movie".
"The reports of Ukrainian civilians who have been killed, raped and severely wounded by Russian troops is beyond reprehensible," Ardern told reporters in the New Zealand capital Wellington. "Russia must answer to the world for what they've done," she said.
She said her Cabinet considered on Monday further measures New Zealand could take to support Ukraine and send a strong message to Russia. Further details would be outlined this week.
"Certainly, what we as an international community are seeing are evidence of war crimes at the hands of Russia," Ardern said.
"Ultimately it is for the International Criminal Court to make that determination, but the evidence is there and New Zealand is supporting the prosecutors in gathering that evidence and making sure that Russia is held to account," she added.
