Ukrainian forensic investigators start exhuming bodies from Bucha mass grave

Ukrainian servicemen stand guard next to bodies that were exhumed from a mass grave, during a visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in the town of Bucha, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine April 8, 2022. REUTERS/Janis Laizans

BUCHA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha on Friday, wrapping in black plastic and laying out the bodies of civilians who officials say were killed while Russian troops occupied the town just northwest of Kyiv.

Ruslan Kravchenko, from the prosecutor's office in Bucha, said they had exhumed 20 bodies, 18 of whom had firearms and shrapnel wounds. He said two women had been identified, one of whom had worked at a supermarket in the town centre.