Cruel Russian troops gunned down a teenager playing football and held hundreds of people - including babies - hostage underground in the brutal early days of the invasion, according to a shocking new report.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Kremlin’s troops of an “abhorrent and cruel” campaign against civilians in late February to early March.
Researchers from the humanitarian group visited 17 villages and small towns in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions and discovered 22 executions, six disappearances and seven cases of torture.
Among the war crimes uncovered from talking to survivors, they found Dmytro Solovei, 14, was shot dead as he kicked a ball about on a playground in the village of Nova Basan.
His older brother was killed as he attempted to retrieve Dmytro’s body.
Shockingly, in Yahidne, survivors said Russian soldiers held more than 350 people hostage in a school basement for a month, with 70 of the captives children. Five were babies.
The captives had little air or room to even lay down and were forced to use buckets if they needed the toilet.
One said of the time underground: “After a week, everyone was coughing violently.
“Almost all the children had high fevers, spasms from coughing, and would throw up.”
Ten of the adults died during the ordeal.
Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The numerous atrocities by Russian forces occupying parts of northeastern Ukraine early in the war are abhorrent, unlawful, and cruel.
“These abuses against civilians are evident war crimes that should be promptly and impartially investigated and appropriately prosecuted.”
Other appalling acts of cruelty uncovered by teams include Russians holding dozens of people in a 40 meter room in Dymer, where the men were blindfolded and handcuffed for several weeks.
HRW found seven cases of enemy soldiers beating their prisoners, using electric shocks on their bodies or carrying out mock executions in which the people were convinced they were about to die.
One man told teams: “They put a rifle to my head, loaded it and I heard three shots.
“I could hear the bullet casings falling on the ground, too, and thought that was it for me.”
Mr Gogia added: “It’s increasingly clear Ukrainian civilians in areas occupied by Russian forces have endured terrible ordeals.
“Justice may not come quickly, but all steps should be taken to ensure that those who suffered see justice someday soon.”
Earlier this week the first Russian soldier on trial for war crimes in Ukraine pleaded guilty.
Tank commander Vadim Shishimarin, 21, murdered a 62-year-old civilian in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka, east of Kyiv on February 28 - just four days after despot Vladimir Putin ordered troops over the border.
Shishimarin told a Kyiv district court today that he pleaded guilty.
The admission in Ukraine's first war crimes trial will be of huge symbolic value to Kyiv.
Prosecutors claim the soldier and four of his comrades were under-fire from Ukrainian troops and hijacked a civilian's car.
After driving the vehicle to Chupakhivka, in Sumy Oblast, they found a local chatting on the phone and riding his bike.
Another serviceman ordered Shishimarin to kill the civilian to stop him reporting their presence in the settlement.
