Russian forces have been branded "worse than ISIS" amid sickening allegations of civilians being executed, tortured and raped by soldiers.
A bombshell report by Human Rights Watch today said evidence had been uncovered of "unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence" directed toward the Ukrainian population.
Vladimir Putin 's troops have been accused of carrying out a "massacre" that "could amount to genocide" in the city of Bucha outside Kyiv after dozens of civilian bodies were found when Russia withdrew.
Today Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba branded Russia "worse than ISIS", accusing invaders of killing "out of anger and just because they wanted to kill".
These are the latest in a long line of war crime allegations against Putin's forces since the start of the invasion in February.
Russian troops are already accused of targeting civilians in merciless bombing campaigns and failing to observe ceasefires.
In the past two days devastating pictures have emerged showing bodies piled up in areas occupied by pro-Russian forces, with many victims said to have have had their hands bound when they were shot.
The International Criminal Court is investigating a string of allegations, amid calls for Putin and his top team to be tried as war criminals.
Today Mr Kuleba told Times Radio: "We understand they were killing civilians while leaving, while withdrawing, while staying there in this town of Bucha and also in other towns and villages in key regions, but also while withdrawing from them out of anger and just because they wanted to kill.
"There was no good reason for them. These were not guerrillas, they were not people opposing them.
"Russia is worse than ISIS, full stop."
Here we look at some of the allegations made against Russian forces in recent days and weeks.
Massacres of civilians
At least 300 residents are alleged to have been killed in the month that Russian forces occupied the city of Bucha.
Sickening images show bodies piled in a mass grave, with many still lying in the streets following the Russian retreat.
Today the mayor of the city, on the northern outskirts of Kyiv, showed journalists dead bodies white cloth tied around their arms.
One of these appeared to have his hands bound, and appeared to have been shot in the mouth.
Anatoliy Fedoruk said: "The Russians have demonstrated that they were consciously killing civilians.
"They practically got a green light from Putin for a safari and they were shooting Ukrainian people.''
HRW has outlined several incidents relayed to them by witnesses.
- One witness to alleged Russian brutality in Bucha said they had seen five men forced to kneel at the side of the road, with T-shirts over their heads. One of the men was shot in the back of the head, the witness said.
- Russian forces in the village of Staryi Bykiv, in Chernihiv region, are claimed to have rounded up at least six men on February 27, and later executed them. The mum of one of the men said she had seen all six bodies.
- Russian troops threw a smoke grenade into a basement in Vorzel, 50km northwest of Kyiv on March 6, a witness said. They then shot a woman and a 14-year-old child as they tried to escape. The child died immediately, while the woman died two days later
A woman named Tatiyana told HRW: "They took six men from three different families.
"One mother had both of her sons taken [and shot].
"Another young man was in his early 20s, his name was Bohdan, I know his mother well, she told me that the soldiers told her to wait near her house while they took her son … to question him.
"They said the same thing to other families. Instead, they led these six men away, took them to the far end of the village, and shot them."
Use of rape as a weapon of war
Today the UK's ambassador to Ukraine said she was aware of reports of women and girls being raped in front of their families, describing it as a "deliberate act of subjugation'.
Heartbreaking testimony uncovered by human rights groups have ramped up calls for troops to be held accountable for their actions.
Melinda Simmons, British Ambassador to Ukraine, posted on Twitter : "Rape is a weapon of war.
"Though we don’t yet know the full extent of its use in Ukraine it’s already clear it was part of (Russian) arsenal.
"Women raped in front of their kids, girls in front of their families, as a deliberate act of subjugation. Rape is a war crime."
Describing her ordeal, a Ukrainian woman told Human Rights Watch that she was lucky to be alive after repeatedly being raped at gunpoint by a Russian soldier.
The 31-year-old woman, identified as Olha - not her real name - told HRW she was targeted after Russian troops arrived in Malaya Rohan, a village in the Kharkiv region of the country.
Olha, who has a five year old son, was taken into a classroom in the school where she and her family were sheltering by a soldier, who told her he was 20.
Describing her distressing ordeal, she said: “He told me to give him [oral sex].
"The whole time he held the gun near my temple or put it into my face. Twice he shot at the ceiling and said it was to give me more ‘motivation.’”
The solider then proceeded to rape her, she told human rights workers.
Olha continued: “While I was putting on my clothes, the soldier told me that he was Russian, that his name was [name withheld] and that he was 20.
"He said that I reminded him of a girl he went to school with.”
When she refused to get her possessions in order to stay with him in the classroom, he held a knife to her neck and raped her again, Olha said.
Torture of civilians, including children
Witnesses who survived the brutal occupation before Russian forces withdrew have claimed that civilians including children, were tortured.
Soldier Sergeiy Torovik told The Times he had been appalled by what he had seen in his hometown of Stoyanka, close to Kyiv.
He described Russian troops as "lower than animals", recounting the horrific scenes he had encountered in a basement of a home, where he said 18 bodies were recovered.
"Some of them had their ears cut off," he said.
"Others had teeth pulled out. There were kids like 14, 16 years old, some adults.
"They just took the bodies away yesterday.”
It is not an isolated allegation.
Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the city of Melitopol, who was held captive by Russian troops for five days last month, said he had endured "psychological violence".
He added: “I heard in the cells next, cries of the tortured, and I understood their degree of violence because human lives do not count for them."
Sonya Sceats, Chief Executive at Freedom from Torture, said: “As harrowing reports of torture, mass executions and the mutilation of corpses by Russian forces emerge, compassionate people across this country want the UK Government to do everything possible to help Ukrainians fleeing the conflict to reach safety and ensure perpetrators are held accountable."
Bombing civilian targets
Russia has repeatedly been accused of shelling civilian targets during its brutal assault on Ukrainian cities.
These include a maternity hospital in Mariupol, as well as a theatre where civilians including children were sheltering.
At least three people, including a child, died in the hospital attack, which was branded "the ultimate genocide".
In a scathing statement accusing Putin's forces of war crimes late last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.
"Many of the sites Russia’s forces have hit have been clearly identifiable as in-use by civilians.
"This includes the Mariupol maternity hospital, as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressly noted in a March 11 report.
"It also includes a strike that hit a Mariupol theater, clearly marked with the word “дети” — Russian for “children” — in huge letters visible from the sky.
"Putin’s forces used these same tactics in Grozny, Chechnya, and Aleppo, Syria, where they intensified their bombardment of cities to break the will of the people."
Use of cluster bombs
Putin's forces have been accused of using cluster munitions in residential areas during its occupation of Kharkiv in late February.
Witnesses and images strongly point to the use of Russian-made 9M55K Smerch cluster munition rockets, HRW said.
Steve Goose, arms director at the campaign group, said in early March: “Kharkiv is under relentless attack from Russian forces and civilians are hiding in basements to evade explosions and debris.
“Using cluster munitions in populated areas shows a brazen and callous disregard for people’s lives.”
HRW said in a statement: "Given the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and their foreseeable effects on civilians, their use as documented in Kharkiv might constitute a war crime."
Disrupting humanitarian corridors
There have been several occasions when civilians attempting to escape besieged cities were seemingly targeted by Russian forces.
During the Siege of Mariupol, it is claimed that shelling continued during a five-hour ceasefire.
US Ambassador Michael Carpenter last month said that on March 5 and 6 evacuation corridors were bombed by Russia.
Sickening drone footage on March 7 appeared to show a civilian with his hands up being shot close to the E40 highway near Kyiv.
At least 10 more dead bodies, which had been burned, were later found along the highway.
