Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
The site near the north-eastern city of Izium, recently recaptured from Russian forces, appears to be one of the largest discovered in Ukraine.
"As of today, there are 450 dead people, buried. But there are others, separate burials of many people. Tortured people. Entire families in certain territories," Mr Zelenskyy said.
The head of the pro-Russian administration, which abandoned the area last week, dismissed the accounts of the burials outside the city of Izium and accused Ukrainians of staging atrocities.
"I have not heard anything about burials in Izium," Vitaly Ganchev told Russian state television.
Outside the city on Friday, men in white overalls were digging out bodies at the site in a forest where about 200 makeshift wooden crosses were scattered among trees.
Some of the markers bore people’s names and had flowers hanging from them.
Roughly 20 white body bags could be seen.
Protected by head-to-toe suits and rubber gloves, investigators gently felt through the decomposing remains of the victims’ clothing, seemingly looking for identifying items.
"We are at the site of the mass burial of people, civilians who were buried here, and now according to our information they all have the signs of violent death," Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said at the site.
"There are bodies with hands tied behind [their backs]," he said.
"Each fact will be investigated and will be properly and legally evaluated."
"For months a rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders were in the occupied territories," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted in English.
"Anyone else wants to 'freeze the war' instead of sending tanks? We have no right to leave people alone with the Evil."
Ukrainian police chief Ihor Klymenko told a news conference all of the bodies recovered so far at the site appeared to be of civilians, although there was information that some soldiers might have been buried there too.
If the number of bodies is confirmed, the site in the former Russian front-line stronghold of Izium would be the biggest mass burial found in Europe since the aftermath of the 1990s Balkan wars.
Putin says Russia has not yet deployed its full forces
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not immediately respond to the accusations, but did defend his operations in Ukraine, saying on Friday he had sent his troops into Ukraine to prevent Western plans to break up Russia.
Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and discussing the war publicly for the first time since Ukraine routed Russian troops in the Kharkiv region last week, Mr Putin vowed to press on with the war.
"Our offensive operation in the Donbas is not stopping," he said.
"They're moving forward — not at a very fast pace — but they are gradually taking more and more territory."
He also noted that Russia had so far not deployed its full forces, adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
"I remind you that the Russian army isn't fighting in its entirety," Mr Putin said.
Mr Putin warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
"We will see how [Ukraine's counteroffensive] ends."
Russia has reported numerous explosions and fires at civilian infrastructure sites near Ukraine, as well as munitions depots and other facilities.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and refrained from commenting on others.
Ukrainian forces retook Izium after thousands of Russian troops fled the area, abandoning weapons and ammunition.
Wong says 'horrific' discovery provides more evidence of war crimes
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the discovery of the mass civilian burial site was "horrific".
"It is yet more evidence of Russia's egregious war crimes in Ukraine," she said in a statement posted to Twitter.
"Those responsible must be held to account."
Earlier, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles praised Ukraine for its efforts resisting Russia's invasion since February, and said Australia was considering requests for additional military aid.
Ukraine's ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has requested more weapons and Australian-made Bushmaster vehicles, which have been used by Ukrainian forces to help regain territory in the north-east Kharkiv region.
Mr Marles said Australia, which is the largest non-NATO contributor to Ukraine, has already supplied around $400 million worth of support and stands ready to provide more assistance.
"I've spoken with the Ukrainian ambassador, I've spoken with Oleksii Reznikov, my counterpart, the Defence Minister in Ukraine; we will continue to work out ways in which Australia can support Ukraine in an ongoing way," Mr Marles said.
"We are aware of the requests that Ukraine has made of us, will obviously consider them.
"We will continue to work with the Ukrainian government to look at the ways in which we can best support them to sustain their effort in resisting this Russian aggression."
No electricity, no phones, no news
In Kupiansk, a north-eastern railway junction city whose partial capture by Kyiv's forces on Saturday cut Russia's supply lines and led to the swift collapse at the front, small units of Ukrainian troops were securing a nearly deserted ghost town.
A formerly Russian-occupied police station had been hastily abandoned in Kupiansk, about 60 kilometres north of Izyum.
Russian flags and a portrait of President Vladimir Putin lay on the floor of the station amid broken glass.
Records had been torched. Behind the steel doors of the station's cells, there was blood on the floor and stains on the mattresses.
Three piglets on the loose from an abandoned sty were foraging in the city street.
Serhiy, a middle-aged man in a thin jacket, was hungry for news.
"There's no electricity, no phones. If there were electricity, at least we could have watched TV. If there were phones, we could have called our relatives," he said.
"If only there hadn't been all this bombing with everyone in their basements."
Reports Russia is preparing defence
After a week of rapid gains in the north-east, Ukrainian officials have sought to dampen expectations that they could continue to advance at that pace.
Russian troops that fled the Kharkiv region are now digging in and planning to defend territory in neighbouring Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, officials say.
"It is of course extremely encouraging to see that Ukrainian armed forces have been able to take back territory and also strike behind Russian lines," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told BBC radio.
"At the same time, we need to understand that this is not the beginning of the end of the war. We need to be prepared for the long haul."
It comes as Russia said it had killed or wounded more than 400 Ukrainian service members in recent attacks on military units in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
During a defence briefing on Friday, Russia Defence Ministry's chief spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said the Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv and near a settlement in Seversk in the Donetsk region had been targeted by shelling.
"As a result of the strikes, the enemy's losses amounted to more than 400 Ukrainian servicemen killed and wounded, more than 20 units of armoured and motor vehicles," Mr Konashenkov said.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Ukraine launches major offensive in south
Mr Putin has yet to comment publicly on the battlefield setback suffered by his forces this month. Ukrainian officials say 9,000 square kilometres have been retaken, about the size of the island of Cyprus.
Ukraine has also launched a major offensive to recapture territory in the south, where it aims to trap thousands of Russian troops cut off from supplies on the west bank of the Dnipro river, and retake Kherson, the only large city Russia has captured intact since the start of the war.
Russia's state-run RIA news agency released video showing smoke billowing from Kherson's Russian-occupied administration building after apparent Ukrainian rocket attacks.
Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the region, told Russian state TV that one wing of the building had been practically destroyed, and there were dead and wounded though it was too soon to say how many. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.
In the east, the chief prosecutor of the pro-Russian separatist administration in Luhansk was killed by an explosion in his office, along with his deputy, according to Russian news agencies. Russia also reported strikes across the border in its Belgorod region.
The speed of Ukraine's advance has boosted its morale and bolstered its case for more weapons from Western allies.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden announced a new $US600 million ($897 million) arms package for Ukraine, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and artillery rounds.
The United States has sent about $US15.1 billion ($22.6 billion) in security assistance to Kyiv since Russia's February 24 invasion.
Wires/ABC
