The bodies of three men have reportedly been found in a pit near Bucha, a city in the Kyiv region of Ukraine, which show signs of torture – according to local officials.
The corpses, believed to be of Ukrainian civilians, were found in shallow graves in the woods near the village of Myrotske.
They were found with their hands tied behind their backs, and some of them were gagged. They also had several gunshot wounds, according to Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebytov.
He said in a YouTube video that the injuries indicates that the men had been tortured, adding: “Finally, each of the men was shot in the ear.”
The men’s clothes showed they were civilians, Mr Nebytov said. Their identities were not known as their faces had been disfigured by torture, he also said.
Forensic laboratories have now examined a total of 1,202 bodies of civilians believed to have been killed by Russian occupiers in the Kyiv region, Mr Nebytov claimed.