Ukraine mayor’s tortured body found alongside husband and son in mass grave
A mass grave containing the tortured bodies of a mayor, her husband and her son has been discovered in woodland near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Appalling photographs show the corpses of an unknown number of men and women, some of whom have their hands tied behind their backs, lying partially covered in a shallow grave.
The burial pit was discovered in forest near the town of Motyzhyn, around 20 miles west of the city of Bucha, where further mass graves have been discovered.
The mayor of Motyzhyn, Olga Sukhenko, was pictured lying face down in the grave alongside her husband Ihor and their son, Oleksandr.
Mrs Sukhenko's body showed "signs of torture", according to the mayor of the neighbouring village of Kopyliv, who added that her arms and fingers had been broken.
Vadym Tokar, head of the Makariv village council which neighbours Motyzhyn, said: "The bodies are still lying there, we can't get them out because there is a suspicion that they are mined."
'Suspected of collaborating with military'
Anton Herashchenko, former deputy minister at the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs, said: "[Russian occupiers] tortured and murdered the whole family of the village head.”
He added: "The occupiers suspected they were collaborating with our military, giving us locations of where to target our artillery.
"These scum tortured, slaughtered and killed the whole family. They will be responsible for this."
The Sukhenko family were said to have been kidnapped by Russian forces on March 23.
Their whereabouts remained unknown until Putin’s forces were forced back from the Kyiv region.
On Saturday their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave behind houses that had reportedly been used by Russian soldiers as a makeshift barracks.
Survivors said the bodies of Mrs Sukhenko and her family had been tossed into the pit after they were killed.
Bucha was under siege for nearly a month after Russia invaded in February and its resistance helped prevent Russian troops from taking Kyiv.
On Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said in a statement all photographs and videos published by the Ukrainian authorities alleging crimes by Russian troops in Bucha were a "provocation" and no resident of Bucha suffered violence at the hands of Russian troops.
