KYIV (Reuters – Ukrainian police claimed that they found three bodies in Bucha, north Kyiv of civilians bound and sometimes gagged with gunshot wounds. Police said they were tortured.

Kyiv claimed that over 1,000 bodies have been found around Bucha. The Kyiv also claims systematic abuses by Russian forces, who held the region for several weeks as a failed attempt to takeover the capital.

Moscow refutes this allegation.

Andriy Negotov, Kyiv Regional Police Chief, said that the bullet wounds on the men’s extremities indicated they were tortured and added, “Finally, each one of them was shot in their ears.”

Also included were images that purportedly showed the grave and bloodied bodies with blurred faces.

Russia’s defense ministry didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment regarding Nebytov.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the information he provided.

Nebytov claimed that men found with blindfolds and tied hands in shallow graves close to Myrotske were found. Some were even gagged. He said that the men were dressed in civilian clothes and their identities weren’t known because their faces were disfigured from torture.

Nebytov claimed that 1,202 bodies were now being examined by forensic labs. These civilians are believed to have been murdered in Russia’s Kyiv region.

Reuters cannot verify whether Bucha has been home to many people or what their circumstances were.

Moscow denies war crimes allegations from Ukraine and other Western nations and denied that civilians were targeted in the Kremlin’s “special military operations” to demilitarize neighbor.

It called the allegations of Russian forces killing civilians in Bucha a “monstrous fabrication” meant to denigrate Russia’s army.