Nearly 300 people were buried in a mass grave in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, just outside kyiv, the town’s mayor said.

“In Bucha we have already buried 280 people in mass graves,” Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said. AFP news agency by telephone. Fedoruk said the streets were littered with dead bodies, according to the news agency.

AFP journalistsreported earlier Saturday that they saw 20 plainclothes bodies lying in a single street in Bucha.

Russian forces have been trying to capture the Ukrainian capital of kyiv since the invasion began on February 24, but Russian troops have been met fierce resistance Across the country. the death toll was raised on both sides, prompting the use of mass graves in other Ukrainian cities, such as Mariupol.

Russian Ministry of Defenseannouncement last week that it would scale back its military assaults on kyiv, despite the US havingremained skeptical of these claims. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyars said on Saturday that the country had regained control of “the entire Kyiv region”, according to AFP.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Saturday that retreating Russian troops were leaving mines around Ukrainian homes and “even the bodies of those killed”, creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians, the Associated Press reported.

“It is still not possible to return to normal life, as before, even in the territories that we take back after the fighting,” Zelenskyy said, per AP. “We have to wait for our land to be cleared, wait for us to be able to assure you that there will be no new bombardments.”