Ukrainian officials have said some of the bodies pulled from a mass grave outside the recently recaptured city of Izium showed signs of torture.

Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor, said some of the more than 440 bodies buried in a forest near the north-eastern city also had their hands tied behind their backs.

“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,” Synegubov said at the site.

“There are bodies with hands tied behind [their backs]. Each fact will be investigated and will be properly and legally evaluated.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Thursday evening accused Russia of “leaving death everywhere” after the discovery of the site. He likened the find, in an area recaptured this week from Russian forces, to the previous mass killings of civilians in the cities of Bucha, outside Kyiv, and Mariupol.

Men in white overalls began digging out bodies on Friday as part of a mass exhumation at the site, reporters with the Reuters news agency said, and 20 white bodybags could be seen. Reuters reported that several bodies had rope tied around their necks and hands.

The Ukrainian police chief Ihor Klymenko told a news conference that all of the bodies recovered so far appeared to be of civilians, although there was information that some soldiers may have been buried there too.

Source : http://.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/16/ukraine-mass-grave-with-440-bodies-discovered-in-recaptured-izium-says-police-chief