Mass graves filled with 180 bodies including a one-year-old baby found in Ukraine

Ukraine says mass burial sites have been discovered in recently recaptured towns in Donetsk region, just weeks after troop withdrawal Russians

Forensic investigators remove an exhumed body (

Image: Getty Images)

Ukrainian authorities have found 180 bodies, including a one-year-old baby and "whole families", in mass graves in recently liberated towns in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Yevhen Zhukov, head of the Ukrainian National Police's patrol department, said a mass grave "in which 180 people were buried" had been discovered in "liberated Lyman", adding that "whole families are buried in mass graves".

"The youngest is only one year old," the attorney general's office said in a statement posted on its website. "She is buried next to the whole family," he continues.

Some mass graves bore names and dates of birth. One with a doll on a cross said "Yelena Kisil, born October 18, 2019". Another, Lyudmila Kisil, was born on March 27, 2021.

People carry the bodies away from a mass burial site in the town of Izyum (

Picture:

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The two little girls died on May 24, 2022, during the period when Russian forces were fighting to seize Lyman.

Russian troops withdrew from Lyman in early October after Ukrainian troops retook the area just two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the area was one of four annexed to Russia last week .

Preliminary results indicated that the deaths resulted from "explosive and projectile wounds, gunshot wounds", they did not specify if there were...