EU calls for war crimes tribunal after mass graves found in Ukraine

The EU presidency has called for the establishment of an international tribunal for war crimes after new mass graves were found in Ukraine.

The appeal follows the discovery by Ukrainian authorities of about 450 graves outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izium, with most of the exhumed bodies showing signs of torture.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Friday said that the graves likely provided more evidence that Russia is committing war crimes in its pro-western neighbouring country.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, joined the condemnation, describing what had happened in Izium as atrocities.

The Ukraine national police chief, Igor Klymenko, said they had found multiple torture rooms in the town of Balakliya and elsewhere in Kharkiv since the Russians were driven out.

The UN in Geneva has said it hopes to send a team to determine the circumstances of the deaths.

The discoveries came a little more than five months after the Russian army, driven out of the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, left behind hundreds of corpses of civilians, many of whom bore the traces of torture and summary executions.

In Washington, the US president, Joe Biden, warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons after serious losses in his war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured thousands of square kilometres in recent weeks thanks to a counter-offensive in the north-east and now threaten enemy positions in the south.

Synegoubov said that an 11-year-old girl was killed by missile fire in the region.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donestk in eastern Ukraine which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, said on social media that Ukrainian firefighters were battling a fire there and that the bombing had led to cuts in drinking water.

The Russian army denies targeting civilian infrastructure or residential areas.