Apparently the timeline of the discovery of the Bucha massacre (as reported by the NYT!) is questionable, since the mayor didn't mention anything about mass killings when the town was liberated. Also it neatly coincides with a Ukranian op to clear the area of "saboteurs and collaborators."
I gave Ukraine some benefit of the doubt about the news when it broke because the presence of dozens or hundreds of dead bodies to fake a massacre just seemed unbelievable. It seems I was at least partially wrong.
This scenario goes along with video of what's supposedly Azov (or another neo-Nazi group) accosting and killing civilians trying to leave Mariupol.
They say Chechen SOBR & Russian OMON were involved but it's too early to say. The OMON from Siberia got fucked in Bucha back in February: https://youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=IdJzKJlVdUI&feature=emb_title I haven't heard any witnesses speaking of the Chechens in their testimonies, but the talks of like "older guys, over 40, in unusual uniforms like black" recall the descriptions of police detachments doing such things in Chechnya. Russian soldiers are usually young (recent conscripts who signed contracts) and wearing green.
Red Cross repeatedly tried for weeks now. It's not just "someone with armbands", they're emmisaries of the Geneva central of the International Red Cross / Crescent trying to organise an evacuation or at least the access for aid convoys. They've been trying many times for several weeks with the same effect.
Reports that International Red Cross were, once again, are unable to enter Mariupol.