Ukrainian officials have found 180 bodies, including a one-year-old baby and "whole families", in mass graves in the recently liberated towns in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Yevhen Zhukov, head of the patrol department of Ukraine's National Police, said a mass grave "in which 180 were buried" had been discovered in "freed Lyman," adding that "whole families lie in mass graves."
"The youngest is only one year old," the prosecutor general's office said in a statement on its website. "She is buried next to the whole family", it continued.
Some mass graves were marked with names and dates of birth. One with a doll resting on a cross read "Yelena Kisil, born Oct. 18, 2019." Another, Lyudmila Kisil, was born on March 27, 2021.
Both baby girls died on May 24, 2022, during the period when Russian forces were battling to seize Lyman.
Russian troops withdrew from Lyman at the start of October after Ukrainian troops recaptured the area just two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the region was one of four that were annexed for Russia last week.
Preliminary results indicated that the deaths resulted from “explosive and projectile injuries, bullet injuries", they did not say whether there were any signs of torture but did not exclude it.
The Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko said officials had begun investigating both burial sites, so he asked people not to speculate on the details until the investigation was completed.
A Ukrainian official also said last week that the bodies of at least 530 people have been discovered in recaptured areas of the Kharkiv region since September 7.
Yevhen Yenin, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, said the bodies included 225 women, 257 men and 19 children, while 29 bodies haven't yet been identified.
Some bodies, Mr Yenin said, had "a rope around their neck, hands tied behind their back, bullet wounds to their knees, and broken ribs."
Last month the bodies of 436 people were exhumed from a burial site in the northeastern town of Izyum after it was liberated. Most appeared to have died violent deaths, local officials said.
The news comes as Pope Francis condemned Russia’s “relentless bombings” of Ukrainian cities and appealed to “those who have the fate of the war in their hands” to stop.
He continued: “My heart is always turned to the people of Ukraine, especially those living in places hit by the bombing”.
