440 bodies found in Ukraine mass grave

Ukraine has said over 440 dead bodies have been found in the graves of the north-eastern city of Izium, who were civilians, amid fears of more burial sites.

“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,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He said 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 neck.

The site near the north-eastern city of Izium, recently recaptured from Russian forces, appears to be one of the largest discovered in Ukraine.

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.