Over the past two decades, Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, has been identifying World War II atrocity sites, uncovering evidence of overlooked massacres. After doing similar work with the Yazidi victims of the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, he is now back in Ukraine, collecting testimonies from the victims of the Russian invasion.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the French Catholic priest – who is also the academic director of the Babi Yar Memorial in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv – started collecting testimonies on the conflict. 

It is almost unbelievable that these crimes committed almost in public are happening on the borders of Europe, two-and-a-half hours by plane from Paris. Everyone is revolted by Bucha, but I wonder what it will be like when Mariupol is liberated? We can expect much larger scenes of massacres. There will be Buchas everywhere.