On Monday (June 13), Ukrainian investigators recovered seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest near Kyiv, and police said they were civilians killed by Russian forces during their occupation of the area.

According to the Associated Press, the mass grave where workers were situated Monday was located behind a trench dug out for a military vehicle. Seven civilian bodies were found, two of which were bound and had gunshot wounds to the knees, according to Nebytov.

Following Russia's withdrawal from Bucha, several mass grave sites, as well as photographic and video evidence of civilian killings and possible war crimes, have been discovered.

According to the Associated Press, Ukrainian workers exhumed bodies from yet another mass grave near the formerly-occupied town of Bucha this week.

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine estimated in April that there were at least 5,600 cases of alleged war crimes and 500 war crime suspects.

The bodies were discovered outside of Vorzel, a village fewer than 10 kilometers from Bucha, where Kyiv claims Russian soldiers occupying the area carried out systematic killings in an unsuccessful bid to overrun the capital. Russia disputes this.

At the site of the graves, Nyebytov told Reuters that one of the exhumed bodies was that of a man in his forties dressed casually. Because the bodies had decomposed, investigators said it would take time to identify them. According to Ukraine, mass graves containing over 400 bodies were discovered in April.

Russian officials have dismissed the Bucha mass graves as a "fabrication" staged by Ukrainian authorities following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the town at the end of March. Russia claims that its "special military operation" does not target civilians.

Workers in white hazmat suits and masks began digging up more bodies in the forest this week. Authorities told the Associated Press that several victims had their hands tied behind their backs.

Russian soldiers occupied the Kyiv suburb for the majority of March, leaving a trail of atrocities in their wake. According to the Associated Press, since Ukrainian forces retook Bucha in early April, authorities have discovered 1,316 bodies, many of which were disposed of in mass graves or the nearby forests.

The discovery of the mass grave comes as Ukrainian authorities declared a criminal investigation into the deaths of over 12,000 people since Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in February. National police chief Igor Klimenko told Ukrainian media this week that the investigations include some victims discovered in mass graves as well as victims killed by snipers operating from military vehicles.