Ukraine on Friday started to exhume a mass grave in Bucha following the discovery of bodies in the province as well as other cities near Kyiv last weekend after Russian forces abandoned their offensive against the capital.

The grave – a long deep trench in the mud behind a gold-domed church – was used by Ukrainians to bury neighbors they claim were killed at the hands of Russian armed forces, which arrived on Feb. 26.

On Friday, crews wearing white forensic overalls were using a flatbed lorry fixed with a mechanical crane to remove corpses from the ditch.

The bodies were laid out on the ground and inspected by teams, including police officers poring over paperwork.

Most of the remains outside the grave, cordoned off by tape, were zipped inside black plastic body bags.

One man at work was wearing a gilet marked with the words "war crimes prosecutor."

Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Niebitov said there were 40 bodies in the grave, including two members of Ukraine's military forces.

He said bodies bore gunshot wounds, buttressing claims they were explicitly targeted by soldiers rather than collateral damage from airstrikes and artillery fire.

"I can define these events as a war crime," he said. "International law defines killing of civilians during any kind of military conflict as a war crime."

"These bodies will be extracted for the court investigation, they will be delivered to undergo a forensic medical examination and an autopsy," he added.

The town of Bucha has become the growing focus of allegations of war criminality against troops ordered to invade Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24.

On Saturday, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) team discovered 20 dead bodies on a single street in the town, home to around 37,000 before the war.

Ukraine says Russian troops executed civilians.

The Kremlin has denied any hand in the killings and denounced photographs depicting the scene as fakery.