The German government has indications that Russia was involved in the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha based on satellite images, a security source said on Thursday, APA reports citing Reuters.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the intelligence agency had intercepted radio messages from Russian military sources discussing the killing of civilians in Bucha.
"It's true that the federal government has indications of Russian perpetration in Bucha," said the source. "However, these findings on Bucha refer to satellite images. The radio transmissions cannot be clearly assigned to Bucha."
The source did not elaborate. He said there was no indication of an order from the Russian armed forces' general staff regarding Bucha.
Spiegel said the German intelligence office had intercepted the radio messages and presented the findings in parliament on Wednesday, without giving a source for the information.
Spiegel also said there were additional sound recordings whose physical origin was harder to pinpoint, which it said suggested similar events had occurred in other Ukrainian cities.
The BND foreign intelligence office declined to comment on the matter.
A German government spokesperson declined to comment on the Spiegel report.