(Reuters) – The bodies of dozens of civilians were found in the village of Bouzova near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Saturday after Russian forces withdrew, a local official said.
Taras Didytch, who heads the Dmytrivka territorial community of which Bouzova is a part, told Ukrainian television that bodies had been found in a ditch near a petrol station. The death toll has not yet been confirmed.
“We come back alive, but during the occupation we had our ‘sensitive areas’ and many civilians died,” said Taras Didytch.
Reuters was unable to confirm this information.
While Russian forces were engaged in an offensive against Kyiv during the first weeks of the invasion, a number of townships around the capital, such as Makariv, Boutcha, Irpin or Dmytrivka, remained under constant fire from the Russians. Russian troops.
Local media reported earlier this month that victims had been found in Bouzova and its surroundings, indicating that nearly 30 bodies had been found at the time.
With most towns and villages around Kyiv having been recaptured, the discoveries of mass graves and civilian casualties sparked a wave of international condemnation, particularly after the bodies of civilians were found strewn on the streets of the northern town of Boutcha. -west of the capital.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Saturday that while the threat to Kyiv had receded, Ukraine was preparing for an uphill battle against Russian forces in the east of the country.
(Report Lidia Kelly Melbourne and Natalia Zinets Lviv; French version Camille Raynaud, told by Matthieu Protard)