Horror at ‘mass killings’ in Ukraine as men killed with bodies littering streets

As Russian forces withdraw from the areas around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, some of the horrors of what they have done are being revealed with bodies being discovered littering the streets of towns

Horrifying details are emerging of mass killings and men being slaughtered in the street, in the previously Russian occupied areas around Kyiv.

As the Kremlin’s forces pull out of towns and villages around Kyiv, Ukraine ’s forces and journalists from the west are able to step foot back in them for the first time since they were taken early in the invasion.

However, they have been greeted with horror scenes of dead bodies littering the streets.

At least 280 people were found dead in the village of Bucha, after Russian forces left the settlement.

An AFP reporter in the village counted dozens of bodies and one man whose hands were tied.

Their bodies littered the streets, greeting those who entered the village.

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In the recaptured town of Bucha, reached by news agency Reuters, the sprawled remains of more than a dozen bodies lined one road. A mass grave in the grounds of a church was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top.

Bucha’s mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, said more than 300 residents had been killed.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was appalled by atrocities in Bucha and voiced support for the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into potential war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.

The photos show the widespread destruction and horrific actions of the Russian armies amidst fears this is only the beginning.

A video believed to be of one such village shows Ukrainian troops having to slalom their trucks down the streets to avoid all the dead bodies that lay there.

The haunting images show a significant number of dead, cast across the street and at the road side with no one to move their bodies.

The video ends with two more bodies, of two people who died together.

More horrifying reports are coming from the liberated regions around Kyiv and in Kyiv Oblast.

Anastasiia Lapatina, a Ukrainian journalist, said: “Russians are shooting civilians after tying their hands behind their backs.

“Dead bodies are all over the Kyiv oblast, on the streets, in cars, in people’s yards. Mass graves are full of unidentified bodies.

“Many families will never know what happened to their loved ones”.

Another horrifying picture from Motizhin, in Kyiv Oblast, shows dead bodies half buried in what could be a mass grave.

Faces and limbs are sticking out of the dirt and sand where the bodies were dumped.

These shocking reports confirm the worst fears of many as the invasion continues into its fifth week.

There have long been reports of Russian atrocities from occupied territories but the new pictures are proof of what many feared.

BBC journalists found the bodies of civilians who were slaughtered by Russian troops in another part of Kyiv.

In Mria and Myla, both in the Kyiv Oblast, they counted a total of 13 dead bodies along a stretch of road.

It comes after Ukraine’s troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv since Russia pulled back from the area this
week, Ukrainian officials said.

“The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said.

Ukraine’s armed forces reported diminished Russian air and missile strikes on Saturday but said Russian troops retreating
from near Kyiv were deploying mines.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a video address: “They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people.”

Ukraine’s emergencies service said over 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of Kyiv.