>> Fury as Russians. 'execute 300 locals

>> Bodies found tied up, shot, and buried

THE sinister shadow of Vladimir Putin's brutality cloaked towns and suburbs around Kyiv last night with the discovery of mass graves and civilian executions.

As Ukrainian troops retook large areas near the capital, they found bodies littering the street, said to have been bound and shot dead by retreating Russian soldiers in Bucha.

There were also accusations of a Srebrenica-style massacre after the grim mass graves were discovered.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky branded the murderous rampage genocide, as Bucha's mayor claimed 300 people had been killed during a month-long occupation.

With the full scale of Russian atrocities against civilians now being laid bare, global leaders last night accused Putin of war crimes.

Mr. Zelensky said: “Indeed, this is genocide. It looks like war crimes.”

His spokesman Serge Nykyforov added: “We found mass graves, we found people with their hands and with their legs tied up... and with shots, bullet holes, in the back of their head. They were clearly civilians and they were executed.

"We found half-burned bodies as if somebody tried to hide their crimes but they didn't have enough time to do it properly.

"It looks, I have to be careful with my wording, but it looks exactly like war crimes."

Ukraine's defence ministry tweeted harrowing footage of the scenes, comparing the grisly images to the 1995 murders of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Bosnia.

It said: "New Srebrenica. The city of Bucha was in the hands of animals for several weeks.