Ukraine finds graves and 'torture centres' in recaptured east

Ukrainian investigators descended on a pine forest outside the recaptured town of Izyum and began pulling hundreds of hastily buried bodies from the sandy soil.

At least one of the corpses had been buried with bound hands, a  journalist saw.

Kyiv officials said they had counted 450 graves at the mass burial site and found 10 alleged "torture centres" after the Kharkiv region was recaptured from Russian invaders.

In the forest outside Izyum, journalists saw graves topped with makeshift crosses and marked with numbers, with one inscription reading: "Ukrainian army, 17 people,Izyum morgue."

"Russia leaves only death and suffering, Murderers, Torturers," said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. Some of the remains exhumed, he said, included children and people who were likely tortured before dying.

Kyiv's forces recovered a swathe of territory in recent days in a lightning counter-offensive in the east, liberating several towns from Russian forces but also uncovering what they say is a grim legacy of occupation.

Police chief Igor Klymenko said torture rooms were found in the town of Balakliya and elsewhere in Karkhiv, while presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said the Izyum mass grave site alone held at least 450 bodies.

On the main road from Izyum to Kharkiv, a small dirt road leads into a pine forest. On the right-hand side of the lane, about 100 metres into the trees, two men in white overalls were digging the sandy soil.