More civilian bodies, including 2 children, are exhumed from mass grave in Ukraine

More civilian bodies, including two children, were found in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium, officials said on Monday.

Separately, two more bodies were discovered in Bucha, the city on the outskirts of Kiev that was the scene of mass atrocities early in the war, officials said.

In Izium, 146 bodies, mostly civilians, were exhumed from a mass cemetery, according to Oleh Synehubov, head of the civil-military administration for the Kharkiv region.

“Some of the dead have signs of violent death, and there are bodies with their hands tied and traces of torture. The dead also have explosive, shrapnel and stab wounds,” Synehubov said, adding that all bodies had been sent for forensic examination to determine the final cause of death.

On Sunday, Izium Mayor Valerii Marchenko said the exhumation of bodies would continue for another two weeks.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said at least 440 “unmarked” graves had been found in the city in recent days, and on Friday President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the bodies showed “signs of torture”, blaming Russia for the damage. what he called “cruelty and terrorism”.

“Russia has rejected Ukraine’s war crimes accusations as a ‘lie’.

In Bucha, volunteers found two more “victims of Russian aggression” in civilian clothes, according to a Facebook post by the Bucha City Council. The bodies were discovered as volunteers patrolled the forest around the Warsaw Highway near the Vorzel settlement.

Bucha’s name has become synonymous with war crimes after reports of summary executions, brutality and indiscriminate bombings emerged following Russia’s hasty retreat on March 31.