More than 1,000 bodies of dead civilians have been found in the Kyiv region, Andriy Nyebytov, Kyiv region’s chief of police, said in a televised Ukrainian marathon program on April 22.

More than 300 dead bodies remain unidentified, Interfax reported.

Most of the corpses found have gunshot wounds from small arms, Nyebytov said.

“I want to say that now the number of bodies is 1,084, and they have been examined by investigators and taken to forensic facilities,” he said. “These are civilians who had nothing to do with the territorial defense or other military formations. Between 50 and 75 percent are people killed by small arms. Depending on the settlement, wounds from machine guns or sniper rifles were found.”

More than 400 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves found in the northwestern Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Many also had signs of torture and sexual violence, including underage women.

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In Borodyanka, 80 bodies have been found and more are being exhumed or found underneath rubble, Nyebytov said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the systemic execution of civilians by invading Russian forces “war crimes” and acts of “genocide.”

Russia renewed its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 but were routed in the Kyiv region by April 1. Moscow forces have indiscriminately bombed solely civilian targets and infrastructure. During the temporary occupation of certain parts of the Kyiv region, Russian soldiers targeted civilians for killings.

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