410 bodies removed from Kyiv; at least 7 dead, 34 wounded in strikes on Kharkiv
- The bodies were recovered from Ukraine’s capital on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; 140 have undergone examination by prosecutors and other specialists
- Kharkiv, which lies in northeast Ukraine close to the Russian border, has been heavily damaged since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian troops.
Iryna Venediktova says on Facebook that the bodies were recovered Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She says 140 of them have undergone examination by prosecutors and other specialists.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says the mayor of the village of Motyzhyn in the Kyiv region was murdered while being held by Russian forces. Vereshchuk adds that there are 11 mayors and community heads in Russian captivity across Ukraine.
In a video address Sunday, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the allegedly targeted killings of civilians in towns that the Russians occupied, calling the killers “freaks who do not know how to do otherwise.” He warned that more atrocities may be revealed if Russian forces are driven out of other occupied areas.
International leaders have condemned the reported attacks in the Kyiv-area towns after harrowing accounts from civilians and graphic images of bodies with hands tied behind their backs.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has rejected the claims of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv.
Seven people died and 34 were wounded after Russian forces struck a residential area in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv on Sunday, local prosecutors said in a statement.
