In the town of Bucha, 37 km (23 miles) northwest of downtown kyiv, Reuters reporters saw a man stretched out by the side of the road with his hands tied behind his back and a gunshot wound to the head.
Bucha Deputy Mayor Taras Shapravskyi said 50 of some 300 bodies found after Russian forces withdrew from the town late last week were the victims of extrajudicial executions by Russian troops.
Reuters could not independently verify these figures or who was responsible for the killings.
Russia’s Defense Minister said in a statement on Sunday that all photos and videos released by Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” committed by Russian Buca troops were a “provocation”, and that no Buca residents suffered violence from Russian troops.
Satellite images showed a 45-foot-long slice dug into the grounds of a Ukrainian church where a mass grave was discovered this week. Reuters reporters Bucha visited a mass grave in a church that was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top.
Photos of the destruction and apparent violence against civilians drew widespread condemnation from Russia and leader Vladimir Putin. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the footage as “a punch in the gut”, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation.
“Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that Western allies would agree on new sanctions in the coming days.
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says the European Union must discuss a ban on the import of Russian gas – a change from Berlin’s earlier resistance to the idea of an import embargo of Russian energy.
Russia has requested that the UN Security Council meet on Monday to discuss what Moscow calls a “provocation of Ukrainian radicals” in Bucharest.
Russia has previously denied targeting civilians and dismissed war crimes allegations in what it calls a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “denazifying” Ukraine. Ukraine claims to have been invaded without provocation.
Human Rights Watch said it had documented “several cases of Russian military forces committing violations of the laws of war” in the Ukrainian regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and kyiv.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has called on the International Criminal Court to collect evidence of what he calls Russian war crimes. The foreign ministers of France and Britain said their countries would support such an investigation.
However, legal experts say a prosecution of Putin or other Russian leaders would face steep hurdles and could take years.
GLOBAL FIGHTS
Russia withdrew forces that had threatened kyiv from the north, saying it intended to concentrate on eastern Ukraine.
Explosions were heard in the early hours of Monday in the southern cities of Kherson and Odessa, while air raid sirens sounded in the east of the country.
Missiles struck near Odessa on Sunday, Russia claiming to have destroyed an oil refinery used by the Ukrainian army. The Odesa city council said “critical infrastructure facilities” had been hit.
The governor of the eastern region of Donetsk said on Sunday that the shelling had continued all night and day. Russian shelling killed seven people in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
Ukraine on Sunday evacuated more than 2,600 people from the southeastern port of Mariupol and the Luhansk region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. Ukrainian officials were in talks with Russia to allow several Red Cross buses into Mariupol, she added.
The Red Cross has abandoned previous attempts due to security concerns. Russia blamed the charity for the delays.
Mariupol is Russia’s main target in the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine, and tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped there for weeks with limited access to food and water.
There were few signs of a breakthrough in efforts to negotiate an end to the war, although Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said talks were due to resume on Monday via video link.