Forensic scientists exhume the bodies of civilians who Ukrainian officials say were killed during the Russian invasion and then buried in a mass grave in the city of Bucha outside Kyiv, Ukraine April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Volodymyr Petrov/File Photo
Kyiv, April 30 – Ukrainian police said on Saturday they had found the bodies of three civilians in Bucha district north of Kyiv, bound and in some cases gagged, with multiple gunshot wounds which police said indicated they were dead had been tortured.
Kyiv says more than 1,000 bodies have been discovered in or around Bucha, where there are allegations of systematic abuse by Russian forces who occupied the area for several weeks in a bid to seize the capital.
Moscow denies the accusation.
In a video posted to YouTube, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebytov said gunshot wounds in the men’s extremities showed they had been tortured, adding: “Eventually each of the men was shot in the ear.”
The video also included images allegedly showing the grave and the bloodied bodies with their faces blurred.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Nebytov’s account.
Reuters could not independently verify the information he provided.
Nebytov said the men were found in shallow graves in forests near the village of Myrotske, near what used to be Russian military positions, blindfolded and with their hands tied, and that some were gagged. The men’s clothing showed they were civilians, he said, adding that their identities were not known because their faces had been disfigured by torture.
Nebytov said forensic labs have now examined a total of 1,202 bodies of civilians believed to have been killed by Russian occupiers in the Kyiv region.
Reuters has not been able to verify the number of people found dead in Bucha or the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Moscow has denied war crimes allegations by Ukraine and Western nations and has denied targeting civilians in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor.
It has labeled claims that Russian forces executed civilians in Bucha as a “monstrous fabrication” designed to denigrate the Russian army.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk Editing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry