Ukrainian officials said they found the bodies of three men in Bucha, with signs they had been ‘tortured.’

Ukrainian officials said they found the bodies of three men in Bucha, with signs they had been ‘tortured.’

The bodies of three men were found in a pit near Bucha, a few miles west of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, with signs that the civilians had been “tortured to death” by Russian troops, the regional police chief said on Saturday.

The police chief, Andriy Nebytov, said in a YouTube video that the victims’ bodies were discovered on Friday in a forest in the village of Myrotske and that their bodies showed signs of mutilation.

“We can tell just by looking that the people were tortured. They were simply shot,” Mr. Nebytov said in the video, which appeared to show the men’s graves and their bodies blurred out. The Times could not independently verify the details.

Since the Russian invasion began in late February, Bucha has become the site of some of the war’s worst atrocities, with civilians bearing the brunt of the assault there. New York Times reporters and photographers documented the bodies of dozens of people killed in their homes and in the woods, and even set on fire in a vacant parking lot.

The evidence suggests that Russian troops killed recklessly and sometimes sadistically. Hundreds of civilian bodies were discovered after the troops finally retreated in late March.

This week, Ukrainian officials published the identities of 10 Russian soldiers who they said had committed war crimes in the city. Russian officials have denied that their troops committed any war crimes in Bucha, calling the images and witness accounts fake.

Earlier this month, President Vladimir V. Putin bestowed honors on the unit that was in Bucha, the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, praising its “skillful and resolute actions.”

According to Mr. Nebytov, over 1,200 bodies of civilians have been found and examined by investigators in the Kyiv region since the war started.

David Kurkovskiy contributed research.

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