Aerial images that appear to show a mass grave in the grounds of a Ukrainian church have been released as outrage grows over alleged Russian atrocities in areas occupied and then abandoned by its forces.
Maxar Technologies, a US company which provides satellite photos of the war in Ukraine, said its images showed what looked like a 14-metre trench dug in the town of Bucha, where corpses were found on the streets after Russian forces withdrew.
It said the first signs of excavation had appeared outside the Church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints on March 10 and developed into an apparent grave site by the end of last week.
Although not independently verified, the aerial images follow numerous reports of atrocities in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, which have sparked international condemnation and were described by Ukraine as a massacre.
Widely shared images of bodies led to accusations of war crimes and raised fears over what horrors might be found in other towns still controlled by Russian forces.
Ukraine says the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in the Kyiv region, where Russia paused on its offensive last week in an apparent repositioning of troops.
Russian forces remain determined to seize the southern city of Mariupol as they reorganise their invasion to focus on the south and east of the country, British military intelligence said on Monday.
The UK’s Defence Ministry said in a regular intelligence update that heavy fighting was continuing in Mariupol and that the southern port was “subject to intense, indiscriminate strikes”.
Capturing the city is “almost certainly a key objective” of the invasion because it would secure a land corridor between the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, it said.
Mariupol and Bucha have become symbols of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as the alleged massacres by Russian forces prompt calls for tougher sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used an address late on Sunday to describe the invading troops as murderers and invite Russian civilians and western politicians to see the war zone for themselves.
“I invite Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions of Russia has led to,” he said, referring to the former leaders of Germany and France.
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In the courtyard of their house, Vlad Tanyuk, 6, stands near the grave of his mother Ira Tanyuk, who died because of starvation and stress due to the war, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier walks with children passing destroyed cars due to the war against Russia, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy surveys the destruction in Bucha. AFP -
Residential buildings damaged during fighting in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
A bridge damaged by shelling in Bucha. EPA -
A soldier stationed in Bucha, after the city was the recaptured by the Ukrainian army. EPA -
Chervona Voloshin kisses Varvara Statenova goodbye as she heads home to Kyiv after being housed at a shelter for displaced people in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty Images -
Parts of a destroyed aircraft at the Antonov airport in Hostomel, outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian territorial defence serviceman walks past a destroyed Russian armoured personnel carrier in the town of Borodianka, north-west of Kyiv. AFP -
Tanya Nedashkivska recounts how her husband Vasyl Ivanovych, who served in Ukraine’s navy, was killed by Russian soldiers, in Bucha, Ukraine. He was arrested by Russian soldiers. Tanya looked for him for days and found him in a building's basement where two bodies were lying. She recognised him by his shoes and trousers. AP -
Damaged residential buildings in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
Families arrive to board a train at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city, in the Donbas region. AFP -
Romanian politicians listen to President Zelenskyy’s speech by video link, on a screen in the parliament in Bucharest. AP -
The remains of a Russian Su-35 aircraft that was hit by the Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A damaged monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in the besieged city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine. Reuters -
A man removes a door covering the opening to an underground concrete enclosure in which bodies of civilians killed by Russian forces, residents say, were dumped as people were unable to transport them to a cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier tries to convince a puppy to drink milk as residents wait for distribution of food products in Motyzhyn, Ukraine, which was until recently under the control of the Russian military. AP -
The pain of war is evident as women wait for food aid in the village of Motyzhyn. AP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on screen during the 64th Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. AFP -
The gutted interior of a theatre in central Mariupol, destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict. Reuters -
Desolation in Mariupol which has suffered intense bombardment. Reuters -
A Ukrainian soldier walks in front of the remains of an Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world's biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian troops at an airfield in the city of Hostomel, in the Kyiv region. Reuters -
A local woman salutes Ukrainian soldiers in the Chernihiv region. Reuters -
A woman hugs a Ukrainian soldier after a convoy of military and aid vehicles arrived in the formerly Russian-occupied town of Bucha, near Kyiv. AP -
Smoke rises after an attack by Russian forces in Odesa. AFP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presents an award to an injured Ukrainian service member at a military hospital in Kyiv. Reuters -
A destroyed building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. AFP -
People, mainly women and children, pass through the Medyka border crossing on their journey out of Ukraine and into Poland. Getty
But he said Ukrainian forces were working to “bring life back” to Bucha by rebuilding infrastructure such as water and electricity supplies and medical facilities.
Reuters said its journalists had visited the town at the weekend and seen bodies lying on the streets and limbs poking through clay that was heaped over a mass grave.
The UN said it was “highly concerned” by images emerging from the region, although it said it could not rule out that some of the dead were fighters or people who died of other causes.
Some diplomats spoke of war crimes. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki went further on Monday by saying: “This is genocide and it must be judged.”
Moscow denied everything, saying the images of dead bodies were a provocation by Ukraine and that no civilians had been harmed.
Russian diplomats want to discuss the issue at the UN Security Council as the war drags into a seventh week with Moscow’s forces still controlling large sections of the country.
“Russian troops still control the occupied areas of other regions. And after the expulsion of the occupiers, even worse things can be found there,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
Britain said Russia’s forces were refocusing their offensive on the eastern Donbas region, with mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner Group apparently being moved into the region.
Western officials believe Wagner is closely linked to the Kremlin and likely to be used to limit official Russian casualties in Ukraine.
