Ukraine war: Morgues store 1,020 civilian corpses after Russian troops abandoning Kyiv campaign

The bodies of more than 1,000 innocent Ukrainian civilians are being stored in morgues near Kyiv after Russian troops abandoned their savage campaign to take the capital.

More and more corpses are continuing to pile up after the Kremlin withdrawal from central Ukraine revealed the scale of horrors in towns such as Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka, after they were recaptured.

Many bodies were dumped in mass graves or left rotting on the street showing signs of torture. 

‘1,020 bodies (of) civilians, only civilians, in the areas of all the Kyiv region,’ were discovered, Olga Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, told AFP in Borodyanka.

‘These are only civilians collected from buildings, but also on the streets,’ she said, adding the bodies date back to the beginning of the savage invasion.

Her comments came after police in the Kyiv region said they had discovered the remains of nine civilians in Borodyanka, some 34 miles from the capital, buried in communal graves.

Oleksandr Pavliuk, the Kyiv regional governor, said the dead were ‘either killed or tortured to death during the hostilities.’

‘Forensic experts are now examining the bodies, but what we saw was hands tied behind the back, their legs tied and shot through the limbs, and in the back of the head,’ he added.

Head of the police in the Kyiv region Andriy Niebytov added: ‘These people were killed by the occupiers and some show signs of torture. I want to emphasise that these people were civilians. 

‘The Russian military knowingly shot civilians who did not put up any resistance.’

Niebytov said police had discovered two graves around Borodyanka.

In one grave, three people – including a 15-year-old girl – were discovered and a second grave held the bodies of six people, he said.

All of them were locals, he added.

The withdrawal of Russian forces left a horrific trail of civilian deaths in a senseless onslaught by Putin’s troops now they have completely given up on Ukraine’s major cities and focused instead on the Donbas.

The horrors started with discoveries in Bucha that have led Ukrainian officials to accuse Russia of genocide.

At the beginning of April, prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told journalists that Ukraine had recovered 410 civilian bodies from areas it retook from the Russian army in the wider Kyiv region.

Since being liberated, numerous Russian atrocities have also come to light in Irpin, and a vast graveyard has been growing by the day as more bodies of civilians and soldiers killed by Russian forces are discovered. 

Such scenes have become all-too-common across Ukraine since Russian forces began their barbaric invasion on February 24, when they entered Ukraine and began besieging towns and cities on Putin’s orders. 

Irpin – along with the neighbouring of Bucha – is one of many sites across the country where Russian forces are accused of carrying out war crimes, indiscriminately attacking and executing civilians. 

Russia denies targeting civilians and has dismissed allegations its troops committed war crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine – despite mounting evidence against them. 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation against Russia, with chief prosecutor Karim Khan QC visiting Irpin’s neighbouring town Bucha last week – where hundreds more bodies have been found.

Ukrainian officials fear the worst of the horrors still lie waiting in Mariupol which Putin claimed today has been finally captured by his forces.

Instead of launching a final assault on the Azovstal steel plant – the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated coastal city – he said he wanted his forces to completely block off the complex instead, ‘so even a fly cannot escape’.

Putin gave the order to Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, who had previously told his boss more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still holed up in the vast plant, which has a sprawling labyrinth of tunnels underneath it.

‘I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary,’ Putin told Shoigu in a televised meeting at the Kremlin. ‘I order you to cancel it.’

After Shoigu told him Moscow controlled the city – apart from the Azovstal steel plant – Putin hailed the ‘successful liberation’ of Mariupol. 

He said his decision not to storm the steelworks was motivated by the desire to safeguard the lives of Russian soldiers.

‘There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,’ he said. ‘Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through.’ Shoigu confirmed the plant was ‘securely blocked.’

Putin also called on the remaining Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal who had not yet surrendered to lay down their arms, saying Russia would treat them with respect and would provide medical assistance to those injured.

Leaving the plant in Ukrainian hands, however, robs the Russians of the ability to declare complete victory in Mariupol. 

The city’s capture has both strategic and symbolic importance, boosting Putin’s hopes to demonstrate major success by Russia’s Victory Day on May 9, with operations set to ramp up, the British MoD said today. 

The scale of suffering there has made it a worldwide focal point, and its definitive fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in the city, which was besieged by Russian troops for over a month, with little access to food, water and with no electricity. Putin’s order adds to fears that those inside the plant could starve.