Russia is facing intense criticism and accusations of war crimes after corpses were seen in city streets on the outskirts of Kiev, after the Russians pulled out of the area.

The Malta Independent's Neil Camilleri and Giuseppe Attard are on the ground in Ukraine and witnessed the horrors first-hand.

A mass grave has been found in the cemetery of a church in the city of Bucha, close to Kiev, which had around 280 bodies. From the information we have, the majority of these were civilians. Some of these were killed while trying to escape the city and were fired upon by Russian troops, some were killed during missile and artillery attacks and others possibly just because they were there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the city and said: "Dead people have been found in barrels, basements, strangled, tortured."

Earlier in the day, The Malta Independent's team was also on the site of a battlefield where a Russian armoured convoy was ambushed days ago. Despite the battle having occurred days ago, the bodies of the deceased were left there.

They also saw two bodies of two civilians brutally killed inside a house, shot in their heads.

European leaders have condemned the reports of bloodshed, and U.S. President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin should face a war crimes trial.