The mayor of Bucha, a town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said on Saturday that 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army. Victims were seen by Reuters in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.
Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had retaken all areas around the capital, reclaiming complete control of the region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.
Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine. There was no Russian comment on the claim that the Kyiv region was entirely in Ukrainian hands and Reuters could not verify this.
Russia has previously denied targetting civilians and rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Kremlin and the Russian defence ministry did not reply to requests for comment when asked on Saturday about the bodies found in Bucha. The defence ministry did not immediately respond when asked about this again on Sunday.
An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops had found the bodies of women who had been raped and set alight as well as the bodies of local officials and children.
“There are murdered men whose bodies bear signs of torture. Their hands were tied and they were killed by shots to the back of the head,” Oleksiy Arestovich told Ukrainian television.
Sergey Nikiforov, a spokesman for Zelenskyy, told Britain’s BBC: “I have to be very careful with my wording, but it looks exactly like war crimes.”
Senior European officials said any potential war crimes should be investigated.
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