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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
William Walker

Rescuers find seven bodies in devastated Borodyanka near Kyiv as search efforts go on

Rescuers scouring the ruins of a devastated town near Kyiv have found seven bodies as search efforts continue.

Ukraine's state emergencies service said the bodies of seven people buried in the rubble of two destroyed high-rise housing blocks in the town of Borodyanka were found on Monday.

More than two hundred rescue workers have been scrambling to find missing residents since Ukraine retook the city west of Kyiv after Russian troops began pulling back from the region late last month.

So far, the bodies of 19 people have been found in the destroyed buildings, the state emergencies service said in a statement.

Mechanical diggers on Monday cleared concrete rubble at the foot of the charred remains of an apartment building.

Some rescuers stood by with sniffer dogs while others peered among the debris with torches, looking for people underneath. One body lay in a bag at the side of the road.

The search continues for the missing (REUTERS)

Ministry press officer Svetlana Vodolaga said: "We don't know the final number of people under the debris.

"We just have information that during the shelling from this particular building there were calls from people who were under the debris."

In other parts of the town on Monday, volunteers cleared rubble from a children's playground.

Workers lifted a burnt-out Russian armoured vehicle onto the back of a truck.

"It's shocking (seeing this). What else can I say," said Borodyanka resident, Maria Glushenko, 68. "People died, young people died. Such good people."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the situation in the town of Borodyanka is "significantly more dreadful" than in nearby Bucha, where Ukraine has accused Russia of war crimes.

Rescue efforts were under way on Monday (REUTERS)

Moscow denies that allegation.

Elsewhere, in Bucha, 35km northwest of Kyiv, local officials said more than 300 people were killed by Russian forces and around 50 of them were executed.

Bodies were allegedly found with signs of torture and some with bullets to the head while their hands were bound.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians and says images of bodies in Bucha were staged by the Ukrainian government to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace negotiations.

Ukraine has previously called on allies to stop buying Russian oil and gas, amid divisions in Europe, and to boost it militarily.

"Ukraine needs weapons which will give it the means to win on the battlefield and that will be the strongest possible sanction against Russia," said Zelensky.

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