• Ukrainian authorities are still discovering more mass graves in the town of Bucha this week.
  • Russian forces occupied the Kyiv suburb for most of March before Ukraine retook the town in early April.
  • Bodies discovered on Monday had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the knees.

Ukrainian workers this week exhumed bodies from yet another mass grave near the formerly-occupied town of Bucha, according to the Associated Press.

Russian soldiers occupied the Kyiv suburb for most of March, leaving behind a trail of atrocities upon their withdrawal. Since Ukrainian forces retook Bucha at the beginning of April, authorities said they've discovered 1,316 bodies, several of which were disposed of in mass graves or in Bucha's nearby forests, according to the AP.

Workers donning white hazmat suits and masks this week set to work digging up more bodies in the forest. Multiple victims had their hands tied behind their backs, authorities told the AP.

"Shots to the knees tell us that people were tortured," Andriy Nebytov, head of the Kyiv regional police, told the outlet at the scene. "The hands tied behind the back with tape say that people had been held [hostage] for a long time and [enemy forces] tried to get any information from them."

 

The mass grave where workers were stationed Monday was located behind a trench dug out for a military vehicle, according to the AP. Seven civilian bodies were discovered, two of which were bound and had suffered gunshot wounds to the knees, Nebytov said. 

The newly-discovered mass grave comes as Ukrainian authorities announced a criminal investigation into the killings of more than 12,000 people since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February. National police chief Igor Klimenko told Ukrainian news this week that the probes include some victims who were found in mass graves as well as victims who were killed by snipers carrying out mass killings from military vehicles.

It was not immediately clear how many of the 12,000 dead were civilians versus military. 

In the aftermath of Russia's withdrawal from Bucha, several mass grave sites have been discovered, as well as photographic and video evidence of civilian killings and possible war crimes. 

Ukraine's Prosecutor General in April estimated that there were already at least 5,600 cases of alleged war crimes and 500 war crime suspects. 

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