The bodies of three men were found in a pit near Bucha, a few miles west of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, with signs that civilians had been tortured by Russian troops to death, the regional police chief said on Saturday.
The police chief, Andriy Nebytov, said in a YouTube video that the bodies of victims were found in a forest in Myrotske on Friday and that their bodies showed signs of mutilation.
The people were tortured and we can tell that they were tortured. They were simply shot, Nebytov said in the video, which appeared to show the men's graves and their bodies blurred out. The Times could not independently verify the details.
Bucha has become the site of some of the war's worst atrocities, with civilians bearing the brunt of the assault there since the Russian invasion began in late February. New York Times reporters and photographers documented the bodies of dozens of people killed in their homes and in the woods, and even set on fire in a vacant parking lot.