Hundreds buried in mass grave in Bucha, near Kyiv: Mayor

Anatoly Fedoruk says the recaptured town’s streets are littered with corpses of civilians killed by Russian forces

Ukrainian forces have buried hundreds of people in a mass grave in a commuter town outside Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, after retaking control of the area from Russian troops, according to an official.

“In Bucha, we have already buried 280 people in mass graves,” Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told the AFP news agency by phone on Saturday, Qazet.az reports.

He said the heavily destroyed town’s streets are littered with corpses.

“All these people were shot, killed, in the back of the head,” Fedoruk said.

He said the victims were men and women, and that he had also seen a 14-year-old boy among the dead.

The mayor also confirmed to Al Jazeera that he had seen at least 22 bodies on Bucha’s streets.

He said it had not been possible to collect the bodies yet, amid fears that Russian forces had booby-trapped the corpses.

“[Fedoruk] is claiming that this has been a deliberate targeting by Russian soldiers – basically a massacre of civilians in his town,” said Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Lviv in western Ukraine.

Bucha has seen fierce fighting during the past few weeks and had been under Russian occupation for about a month until it was retaken this week.

“According to the mayor [the dead people] were trying to escape to Ukrainian held territory when, according to him, they were simply gunned down,” McBride said.