HARROWING footage shows a distraught Ukrainian mum uncovering her daughter's shallow grave while chilling aerial pictures reveal a mass burial site reportedly dug by Russians.

Vladimir Putin's troops have been accused of genocide amid reports hundreds of civilians have been executed in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, as shocking imagery exposes the horrific extent of the carnage.

Bucha resident Antonina Pomazanko's daughter was shot dead by Russian soldiers on the first day of their occupation of the area when she went outside to look at a column of tanks, according to reports.

The heartbroken mum was forced to put her body in a shallow grave outside their house in desperation.

In disturbing footage, Antonina can be seen showing Ukrainian troops her daughter's grave as she helps them remove wooden boards balanced over the body.

Meanwhile, unsettling satellite pictures appear to show a 45ft long trench in the grounds of a church in Bucha.

Read More on Ukraine

Ukraine mayor ‘executed by Russians alongside family & dumped in shallow grave’

Russia vows to target British weapons & accuses UK of escalating Ukraine war

"More recent coverage on March 31st shows the grave site with an approximately 45-foot-long trench in the southwestern section of the area near the church," private US space technology company Maxar said in a statement.

It came as reports emerged of Putin's butchers executing tied-up civilians and leaving bodies strewn on the street in Bucha.

The retreating forces are also said to have booby-trapped corpses and mined homes.

At least 20 bodies, some with their hands bound, were seen strewn across a single street on Sunday.

Most read in The Sun

Ukrainian officials say 410 people have been found dead in towns near Kyiv so far – with at least 300 were killed in Bucha alone, and 57 discovered in one mass grave there.

Among those said to have been killed was a 14-year-old boy.

There have also been claims of rapes and the Kremlin’s soldiers "mutilating children".

Bucha's mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said "all these people were shot," adding 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves elsewhere in the town.

Boxing legend Wladimir Klitschko posted a Twitter video from Bucha that he said showed civilians "shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back".

He said: "This is not a special military operation. This is genocide."

In nearby Irpin, one report claimed Russian kill squads shot women and girls and then drove over them in tanks.

Moscow’s fighters also booby-trapped corpses, sources added.

Chechen forces controlled the area at the time, it is claimed.

It comes as…

• Vladimir Putin could be ousted in a ‘palace coup’ by his cronies within TWO YEARS, says intel analysts
• Kremlin brazenly complains after Ukraine destroys fuel depot on Russian soil moaning that attack will hamper peace talks
• Russia vows to target British weapons & accuses UK of escalating war in Ukraine as tensions rage
• Vladimir Putin’s forces mining homes and corpses & ‘using children as human shields’

Meanwhile, reports claim the mayor of Motyzhyn, a village 30 miles west of Kyiv, was kidnapped, executed and dumped in a forest pit along with her husband and son.

Russia last night insisted allegations it targeted civilians were "fake".

Moscow says no residents were hurt by Russian forces and accused Kyiv of staging the horrific crimes for western media.

In an unhinged rant, Russian state TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov said: "The war against Russia entered a new phase today. Very soon they'll accuse us of genocide.

"To all appearances, this whole provocation was plotted by the British."

But Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "Russia is worse than ISIS."

He told Times Radio: "They were killing civilians while leaving – out of anger and just because they wanted to kill.

"We are still gathering bodies but the number has already gone into hundreds."

Boris Johnson warned that the sickening images are evidence that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine.

And he said Britain will step up sanctions and military aid in response.

"I will do everything in my power to starve Putin's war machine," he said yesterday.

He added: “No denial or disinformation from the Kremlin can hide what we all know to be the truth — Putin is desperate, his invasion is failing, and Ukraine’s resolve has never been stronger.

"We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground.

"The UK has been at the forefront of supporting the International Criminal Court’s investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine.

"The Justice Secretary has authorised additional financial support and the deployment of specialist investigators – we will not rest until justice is served."

Ukraine's emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of the capital.

In Bucha, AFP journalists said at least nine bodies appeared to have been executed, including two whose hands were tied behind their backs.

Three were naked from the waist up while another man had his Ukrainian passport left open beside him.

Officials said bodies had not been collected because of fears Russians had booby-trapped them.

Yesterday Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky told the US news channel CBS: "They are mining all this territory.

"Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people. This is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people.

"We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities.This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities."

RUSSIAN 'RETREAT'

Military expert Michael Clarke said there was no strategic benefit "whatsoever" for Vladimir Putin to order a massacre in the area as his troops retreat towards Belarus.

He told Sky News it suggests Russian troops rounded people up according to lists "like the Gestapo".

"Some of these killings might have been as examples to the villages or revenge, but a lot of it, one suspects, is troops out of control."

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has already opened a probe into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Several Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of being a "war criminal".

Human Rights Watch also said it had documented cases of Russian troops committing possible war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of Chernigiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv, including rape and summary execution.

It comes as Ukraine said it had regained control of the Kyiv region, with Russian troops retreating from around the capital and Chernigiv city.

Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that their forces had taken back more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion.

"The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader," Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Facebook.

Read More on The Sun

William and Kate want to move to Windsor this summer to be nearer the Queen

Russia ‘worse than ISIS’ after executing more than 400 in ‘genocide’

After more than five weeks of brutal fighting, Russia is understood to have regrouped for battles in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.

We pay for your stories!

Do you have a story for The Sun news desk?

Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4104. You can WhatsApp us on 07423 720 250. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours

Click here to get The Sun newspaper delivered for FREE for the next six weeks.

Source: Read Full Article