As Russian troops retreated from areas outside Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, they left behind devastation that is only now becoming clear.

Civilians have emerged from basement shelters to clamour for bread distributed by the Ukrainian soldiers retaking territory. The husks of destroyed tanks clutter roads. Mines and booby traps have been hidden amid the wreckage. Bodies lay uncollected in streets littered with debris.

The dead include civilians, some of whom Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of executing. Footage posted by Ukraine’s defence ministry and photographs from The New York Times and AFP showed the bodies of men in civilian clothes on the streets of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. In one photo, three people were seen lying on a roadside beside a pile of wooden pallets, blood darkening the ground beside them, one with white cloth binding his hands.

Liz Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, said evidence was being collected to investigate any war crimes and hold those responsible to account, calling the reports of Russians targeting civilians “abhorrent”.

Russia has said it is shifting its forces to concentrate on holding and expanding territory it has captured in the south. But military analysts say it was left with few other options after falling short of its initial goal of seizing the capital. Still, fears remain that Russian forces could renew an assault on Kyiv, and fighting has continued elsewhere across the country.

Russia’s chief negotiator in peace talks, Vladimir Medinsky, rejected a Ukrainian counterpart’s suggestion that Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could soon hold direct talks.

Medinsky said the two sides remained far apart on the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, both of which are claimed by Russia.

(New York Times News Service)