Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register KIEV, April 30 (Reuters) – Ukrainian police said on Saturday they had found the bodies of three civilians in the Bukha area north of Kiev, tied up and in some cases silenced, with multiple gunshot wounds that police say indicate they were tortured. Kyiv says more than 1,000 bodies have been found in or around Bukha, where it claims systematic abuse by Russian forces that have occupied the area for several weeks in a failed attempt to seize the capital. Moscow denies the allegations. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register In a video posted on YouTube, Kyiv Regional Police Chief Andriy Nebitov said the bullet wounds to the men’s limbs showed they had been tortured, adding: “Eventually, each of the men was shot in the ear.” The video also contained images supposedly showing the grave and bloodied bodies, with faces blurred. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nebitov’s account. Reuters could not independently verify the information it provided. Nebitov said the men were found in shallow graves in forests near the village of Mirotske, near Russian military posts, blindfolded and handcuffed, and that some had been silenced. The men’s clothes showed they were civilians, he said, adding that their identities were not known as their faces had been deformed by torture. Nebitov said forensic laboratories had now examined a total of 1,202 civilian bodies believed to have been killed by Russian occupiers in the Kiev region. Reuters could not verify the number of people found dead in Bucha or the circumstances of their death. Moscow has denied allegations by Ukraine and Western countries of war crimes and denied targeting civilians in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor. He described the allegations that Russian forces had executed civilians in Bukha as “monstrous forgery” aimed at discrediting the Russian military. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Pavel Polityuk Edited by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
