Photos: Mass graves found around Kyiv, calls grow for more sanctions on Russia

The following images may be disturbing to some readers.

Calls for war-crime investigations and harsher sanctions on Moscow grew Monday as Ukrainian and Western officials responded to discoveries of mass graves and streets littered with the bodies of dead civilians after the Russian retreat from suburbs around Kyiv.

European nations, including Britain, Germany, France and Spain, vowed to punish Russia for alleged atrocities in a war that is now in its 40th day, even as Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, experiences a reprieve. As Russia’s military focus appeared to shift to southern and eastern areas, new strikes were reported overnight, including on the historic Black Sea port of Odesa and the city of Mykolaiv, both in the south. No information was available on deaths or injuries.

In an overnight video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the most brutal images from newly liberated areas such as Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, were still to come. The Ukrainian government said it had counted 400 civilian deaths in the Kyiv suburbs, including the devastated town of Irpin, since invading Russian troops began departing last week.

Children wave from a train at Kramatorsk central station as families flee the eastern city of Kramatorsk in the Donbass region on April 4.

(Fadel Senna / AFP )

A man carries a little girl as he arrives with other families to board a train at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city of Kramatorsk in the Donbass region on April 4.

(Fadel Senna / AFP )

President Volodymyr Zelensky walks in the town of Bucha, just northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on April 4.

(Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images)

Communal workers collect the bodies of two men in the town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, on April 3.

(Sergei Supinsky / AFP )

Firefighters battle a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday.

(Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Mourners attend a funeral service for Ukrainian soldier Ivan Skrypnyk at the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Lviv on Thursday. Skrypnyk was killed with two others when a land mine exploded and destroyed their armored vehicle near Kyiv.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A person grieves next to a body near a residential building that was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv on Thursday.

(Fadel Senna / AFP/Getty Images)

Pre-dug graves appear at a cemetery on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, on Thursday.

(Getty Images)

A woman with her child checks her mobile phone as she waits for relocation in Przemysl, Poland, on March 16, 2022.

(Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP/Getty Images )

Members of Congress watch a video of a soldier speaking to a boy in Ukraine during a virtual address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium in Washington.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Pool Photo)

A Ukrainian soldier prays by the casket of Col. Valeriy Gudz, who was killed in a battle with Russian soldiers in the town of Boryspil near Kyiv.

(Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press)

A woman is evacuated from a burning apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine.

(Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images )

A bombed-out apartment building in Kyiv.

(Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

Firefighters evacuate an elderly woman from an apartment building hit by shelling in Kyiv.

(Ukrainian State Emergency Service)

A Ukrainian soldier holds a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon that was used to destroy a Russian armored personal carrier in Irpin, north of Kyiv, on Saturday.

(Sergei Supinsky / AFP/Getty Images)

A child’s doll lies next to a car riddled with bullets in Irpin, north of Kyiv, where Russian forces were raising the pressure Saturday.

(Sergei Supinsky / AFP )

Vasil Seychuk, with his wife, Oxana, rests in a hospital in Brovary, 15 miles from central Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Seychuk was at home when a shell struck, costing him part of his right thumb and injuring his leg.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

A young boy sits on a suitcase as Ukrainian refugees wait to be transported after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A bridge crossing the Trubizh River is destroyed, on a road leading to Borshchiv, Ukraine.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Ukrainian refugee Orest Hromnadzkiy gets a hug from his sister Yuliia and mother Alla after he crossed the border in Medyka, Poland.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

After fighting in Irpin, just outside the capital, a Ukrainian soldier stands near the covered bodies of Russian soldiers on Thursday.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian’s army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022.

(Evgeniy Maloletka / Associated Press)

An elderly resident hides in a basement for shelter with no electricity, water or food in the center of the town of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, Friday, March 11, 2022.

(Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press)

Two men carry a corpse in a body bag to lay it next to others in a snow covered yard in Mykolaiv, a city on the shores of the Black Sea that has been under Russian attack for days on March 11, 2022.

(Bulent Kilic / AFP )

Soldiers stands at a checkpoint near the front line in Brovary, northeast of the capital. “Every street, every house... is being fortified,” said Kyiv’s mayor.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Ukrainian volunteers help remove a dead civilian body, as Russian forces continue to besiege the residential neighborhood, in Irpin, Ukraine on Monday, March 7, 2022.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Ukrainian soldiers and militiamen carry a woman in a wheelchair as the artillery echoes nearby, while people flee Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.

(Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press)

The dead bodies of people killed by Russian shelling lay covered in the street in the town of Irpin, Ukraine.

(Diego Herrera Carcedo / Associated Press)

A member of the Ukrainian military gives instructions to women and children fleeing fighting in Bucha and Irpin, Ukraine, on March 4.

(Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

The body of a Russian soldier lies by the road after Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian vehicle March 3 near Sytnyaky.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Ukrainian soldiers salvage equipment from the body of a Russian soldier after a Russian vehicle was destroyed in battle near Sytnyaky.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

A Ukrainian soldier wanders down railroad tracks to inspect something, past the bodies of Russian soldiers where fighting took place on the outskirts of Irpin, Ukraine.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Volunteer fighters transport rifles across a river under a destroyed bridge to reinforce Ukrainian troops in Irpin, Ukraine.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Members of a Ukrainian civil defense unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown-up bridge on Kyiv’s northern front on Tuesday.

(Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images)

Refugees arrive from Ukraine at the border crossing Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, on Tuesday.

(Darko Vojinovic / Associated Press)

Volunteers from the Territorial Defense Units make Molotov cocktails to use against Russian troops in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 26.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

A nurse checks a baby being treated at a pediatrics center after the unit was moved to the basement of the hospital, which is being used as a bomb shelter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 28.

(Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

Damage from a rocket that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 26.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

A dead soldier on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25.

(Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Natali Sevriukova’s home was struck by a rocket in Kyiv, Ukraine.

(Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press)

A Ukrainian soldier inspects the wreckage of a downed plane in Kyiv, the nation’s capital, on Friday.

(Vadim Zamirovsky / Associated Press)

A Ukrainian woman and child at the border of Ukraine and Slovakia.

(Peter Lazar / AFP/Getty Images )

Dead soldiers in Kyiv. Ukrainian forces said the dead were Russian troops wearing Ukrainian uniforms on a mission to infiltrate the capitol.

(Sergei Supinsky / AFP/Getty Images)

A boy in a public basement being used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine.

(Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press)

Ukrainian soldiers take up positions on a bridge in Kyiv, the capital.

(Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press)

A man uses a carpet to cover a body after bombings in the eastern Ukraine town of Chuguiv on Feb. 24.

(Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images)

A wounded woman whose apartment complex was damaged by an airstrike outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.

(Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A man mourns near a body after an airstrike at an apartment complex outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.

(Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Residents leave Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, after Russian missile strikes.

(Pierre Crom / Getty Images)