The police team pulled up in front of a small house in a rural area near Kyiv and retrieved another body bag.

A young man waited at the front gate to lead them into the garden. There, beside a shallow grave in a patch mud, was the body of his father, Yuri Vasakin (62).

According to his son, Russian soldiers beat and then shot him in March when they took over a number villages around Makariv.

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Yevgenii Vasakin simply shrugged when asked why they had targeted his father.

Officials claim that more than 130 bodies, all civilians, were retrieved from this area to the east and killed by Russian troops.

The toll continues to rise.

“This is horrendous. “They are not human,” declared Vadim Tokar (the mayor of the city), a tall man in military fatigues.

Evidence found in fields and gardens seemed to indicate that Russian troops were systematically killing certain residents.

The mayor stated that “we found bodies all over the district, wherever Russian forces were occupying.”

As part of a larger withdrawal from the north of Ukraine, Russian soldiers moved out of the area last week.

Their departure revealed the extent of the cruelty that occurred while the tanks were trampled on the lives and livelihoods in Makariv over the past month.

Local police officer Yuri Nechai, along with his team, was assigned to help pick up the pieces. They were equipped with a sheet of paper and a list of possible locations.

They used to patrolled a peaceful, quiet community.

They now have to take their bodies.

This means that the sight of death is no longer relevant.

In broken English, Mr Nechai stated that “one month our territory goes war.”

“I can see my friend explode. “I don’t feel guilty about finding bodies after this.”

His team is finding a lot, more than 20 in just three days.

Another body was found in the garden next to the Vasakin home.

He was a retired police officer sergeant. He too had been shot dead.

The officers placed the body in a second bag and zip it up. They then picked it up and took it to the van.

The spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin denied that Russian troops killed civilians in Ukraine.

This comment was ridiculed by the young officer in police.

“May I speak English? He asked in Ukrainian and then replied: “It’s bulls ***.”.”

Mr Nechai said, “I know so much people, relatives. They call me to tell me that the Russian army will go to his house and take the people out of it and then shoot them.

A village nine miles away, Vitaly Pavolvych’s cousin was killed by Russian troops. His cousin’s neighbor was also killed.

Anatolii Kebukevych stated that he didn’t know why, but he wondered if his cousin was killed because of something he saw on his phone.

Both men were buried in the field to their backs.

The mayor stated, “First they killed Vitalik.”

They tied his hands behind his back, and forced him to kneel. They shot him. They then went to Vadym [the neighbor]. They placed him in the basement. He refused to kneel, it seemed. He was shot in the legs and made to kneel before being shot in the back.

The smell of death was strong as we sat back in the police van.

They found four bodies in their back but had to collect 10, before they could transport them to the local morgue.

According to Mr Nechai, they were alerted to the existence of three additional victims buried in makeshift graves at a nearby village cemetery.

They climbed back in the car and headed off.