Dead Ukrainians found with clear signs of torture in territory recaptured from Russia, Ukraine officials say

• Bodies found at a mass burial site in Ukraine had signs of torture, Ukrainian officials said.
• The site is located in Izium, Ukraine, which has been recently retaken from Russian occupation.

Bodies discovered at a mass burial site in a city in Ukraine that's been newly reclaimed from Russian occupation had clear signs of torture, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine's defense ministry said on Friday that mass graves were found in the area of Izium after it was recaptured from Russian forces amid the Kremlin's nearly seven-month-long war with the eastern European country.

The largest burial site in the region contained 440 unmarked graves, said the defense ministry.

Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said the bodies unearthed from the area had "traces of a violent death, but also of torture — cut off ears, etc.," the Associated Press reported.

Enin called the gruesome discovery "just the beginning."

"All these traces of war crimes are now carefully documented by us. And we know from the experience of Bucha that the worst crimes can only be exposed over time," Enin said in an interview with Ukraine's Radio NV, according to the AP.

Oleksandr Filchakov, the head of the prosecutor's office in Kharkiv, where Izium is located, said that some of the first bodies that were exhumed had ropes around their necks, the AP reported.

Some of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs, Filchakov added.

Ukrainian officials believe that the majority of those found were civilians.

The chief police investigator for the Kharkiv region, Serhii Bolvinov, said that some of the dead Ukrainians were fatally shot or killed from shelling.

"We know that some were killed [shot dead], some died because of artillery fire, so-called mine explosion traumas. Some died because of airstrikes," Bolvinov said, according to Sky News.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said, "Russia leaves death everywhere," after calling out the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Mariupol, where other mass graves were previously discovered during the war.

Russia, Zelenskyy said, "must be held accountable for that."

In recent days, Russia has suffered disastrous defeats in the war as Ukrainian forces reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory from Russian occupation in a stunning and lightning-fast counteroffensive.