Makeshift graves discovered near a hospital in the devastated town of Borodianka, near kyiv, have given away their secrets to experts investigating war crimes charges against Russian troops.
Authorities said nine civilian corpses, many of them shot, were exhumed from these graves.
Investigators collected more than 1,000 bodies of civilians from streets, courtyards or improvised graves around the Ukrainian capital, some of whom had their hands and feet tied or gunshot wounds to the back of their necks, officials said Thursday. responsible.
This investigation is part of the documentation of what Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, described as “atrocities” committed following the invasion of Russian troops, who by subsequently were forced to withdraw from the region.
“We are investigating all this,” Pavliuk told reporters. “We do not have the definitive number of civilians killed”.
“Forensic experts are examining the bodies, but what we saw were hands tied behind their backs, legs tied and bullets fired through limbs and the back of their heads. “, he added.
French investigators have already started helping in the nearby town of Boutcha, a location that has become synonymous with allegations of brutality inflicted under Russian occupation.
Russia’s offensive and subsequent accusations of violence against civilians have drawn international condemnation and unprecedented economic sanctions.
– “No one to bury him” –
As the entire area suffered an avalanche of deadly strikes, civilians carried out makeshift burials at Borodianka, a practice authorities said was repeated at other locations around Kyiv.
“They were buried by local citizens to prevent the bodies from decomposing, to preserve them so that it was possible to carry out forensic analyzes and establish the cause of death,” said Iryna Prianyshnykova, a spokesman for the national police in the capital region, about Borodyanka.
According to her, about 60 people were found dead in this city, where a series of apartment buildings were plagued by explosions, some having completely collapsed.
One of the makeshift burial sites was near a hospital. After the exhumation, a black metal cross and what looked like a soiled blanket and coat remained on the ground.
Hospital officials said they could not give any information about what happened because they fled violence in Borodianka after the Russian offensive began on February 24.
Among the dead are a 15-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man, who police say suffered gunshot wounds to the chest.
“We unearthed gunshot wounds on many bodies,” Ms Prianychnykova said, speaking of the bodies exhumed near the hospital. “Most of them were inflicted with a heavy machine gun.”
At least one body was still waiting to be exhumed by investigators.
Tetiana Sloukhaienko, a 58-year-old pensioner, said the body buried under a mound of dirt in the field behind her house was that of a civilian man shot in the first weeks of the invasion.
“He lay there for maybe a week or more on the side of the road, there was no one to bury him,” she said, adding that the police had been notified and that they didn’t know his name.
“It was only when they (the Russian soldiers) left that people buried him here, because there was no other place,” Ms Sloukhaienko added.
The location is marked with a white plastic strip. But there is no name on it.