More international reaction is coming in after the emerging atrocities in Ukraine show new evidence of civilian killings allegedly by Russian military.

Germany has expelled 40 Russian envoys over the atrocities in Bucha, near Ukraine's capital Kyiv, and said further measures with allies are being prepared, local news is reporting.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock added that Berlin would also boost its support to Ukraine's armed forces.

Bodies of civilians have been found on the streets in Bucha. Our reporter in the town has been to the basement of a house where five bodies were found - men with their hands bound who appeared to have been shot dead.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said the UK will make sure perpetrators of atrocities in Ukraine are brought to justice.

Speaking alongside Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba during a visit to Warsaw, Truss also said the UK needs to announce "a tough new wave of sanctions" on Russia.

She added that there should be no talk of removing sanctions on Russia while its troops are in Ukraine.

"The reality is that money is still flowing from the West into Putin's war machine - and that has to stop," she said.

Image source, State Emergency Services of Ukraine

The Zhytomyr region is now free of Russian forces, its governor has said.

The region, which neighbours the Kyiv region to the west, has been a key corridor for the delivery of aid and equipment to the capital since the start of the war.

It has also suffered massive bombardment that killed civilians and left many without homes.

Writing on Telegram, Governor Vitaliy Bunechko said: "The enemy was repulsed and today there are no Russian occupation troops in our region.

"They left the northern communities... but the war is not over. We will win! Glory to Ukraine!"

Image source, Getty Images

A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is being held after trying to help evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol, the group says.

"The team was stopped on Monday while carrying out humanitarian efforts to help lead a safe passage corridor for civilians," a spokesperson said.

The group is being held in Manhush, just under 20km (12 miles) from Mariupol.

Jason Straziuso told Reuters that the group were being held by police and it was "not a hostage situation".

The ICRC has been in direct contact with the team and is "speaking with the parties on all sides to bring clarity to the situation and allow them to resume their humanitarian work", the spokesperson said.

The Red Cross has been trying to evacuate people from Mariupol for days. Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in the city after weeks of heavy bombardment from the Russians.

US President Joe Biden has called for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to face trial over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. But what’s the chance of Putin actually ending up in court?

As our legal correspondent Dominic Casciani explains in this article, it’s much easier to pin a war crime on the soldier who commits it than the leader who ordered it.

One of the challenges involves establishing a chain of command which proves that a leader has authorised an atrocity – or turned a blind eye to it.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is one body involved in upholding the so-called "rules" of combat. Its chief prosecutor has said there’s a reasonable basis to believe war crimes have happened in Ukraine.

But although ICC judges can issue arrest warrants, the court doesn’t have its own police force. Instead, it relies on member states to detain suspects – and Russia is no longer a member.

And Moscow continues to deny that it has targeted Ukrainian civilians during the invasion.

The town of Borodyanka will be the worst-hit by the Russian invasion in the Kyiv region, the Ukrainian prosecutor general has said.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Iryna Venediktova said the number of victims in the town would be higher than anywhere else, though gave no further details.

Borodyanka is around 23km (14 miles) west of Bucha, where images since the Russian withdrawal have shown numerous bodies lying in the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs.

Ms Venediktova also said that in her view many of the actions of the Russian military in the Kyiv region could be classified as crimes against humanity.

On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities announced they were investigating alleged atrocities by Russian forces in areas around Kyiv they have occupied in recent weeks.

As we've been reporting, Ukrainian forces have regained control of large areas around the capital, Kyiv, as Russian forces withdraw and refocus their efforts on operations in the east of the country.

Here are a few of our latest maps visualising the conflict.

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US President Biden has again labelled Vladimir Putin a war criminal. He is calling for the Russian leader to face trial over the killings in Bucha.

As we’ve been reporting, the bodies of civilians have been found strewn on the streets there. Our reporter in the town has been to the basement of a house where five bodies were found - men with their hands bound who appeared to have been shot dead.

Biden says he’s also seeking more sanctions against Russia over the atrocities, which Moscow denies its troops carried out.

The US president previously caused outrage in Moscow when he first accused Putin of war crimes last month.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken during his visit to Bucha – a city in which Russian forces have been accused of slaughtering civilians.

Despite the human suffering there, he told reporters that residents were showing their humanity by ensuring homeless animals were fed.

“That’s a characteristic trait of our people, I think - treat animals the way you would treat humans,” he said.

“[But] you can see around what was done to this modern town. That’s a characteristic of Russian soldiers – treat people worse than animals. That is real genocide, what you have seen here today.”

Zelensky went on to blame Russia for “dragging out” peace talks in Turkey, saying this would only make the situation on the ground worse.

“With every day, when our army are moving into the previously occupied territory, you can see what’s happening,” he said.

"Day by day, they find bodies in cellars; people tortured, people killed,” he said.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians during its invasion.

Ione Wells
Westminster Correspondent, BBC News

Senior government sources have told the BBC that the UK government is considering further action against Russian soldiers themselves.

It's understood this could include sanctions - but also looking at ways to hold them legally accountable - for what the prime minister has described as evidence of war crimes in Ukraine.

Officials are looking at measures that could target captains, majors and colonels in the Russian military.

Image source, EPA

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU is ready to send joint investigations teams to Ukraine to document reported war crimes.

She has tweeted , externalafter speaking to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, she says, about "the atrocious murder of civilians in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine".

The teams would be in coordination with Ukraine's prosecutor general, with support from the European police agency Europol and criminal justice agency Eurojust.

Shocking images of civilian bodies in the streets of Bucha, near Ukraine's capital Kyiv, have led to an outpouring of international condemnation of Russia.

Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent, reporting from Dnipro

Image source, Reuters

Russia has lost more than three times as much military hardware as Ukraine in the first 40 days of the war, according to a military analysis site.

Relying on video and photographic evidence of equipment destroyed, abandoned or captured, Oryx found Russia lost 2,406 pieces of military equipment – including tanks, armoured vehicles and military aircraft - compared with only 677 losses for Ukraine.

To some extent the scale of the losses reflect the larger size of Russia’s military. But they also suggest that Ukrainian forces have, so far, proved to be more effective in combat.

Russian losses appear to be significantly higher right across the board – from combat aircraft to artillery pieces and armoured vehicles.

However, the Oryx tally, external also suggests Russia has had some success in targeting Ukraine’s air defences. There’s visual confirmation that Ukraine has lost 36 air defence systems, just slightly fewer than the Russian number of 42. These figures don't include shorter-range portable systems, known as Manpads.

Oryx says the amount of equipment destroyed in the war is likely to be significantly higher than its team has documented.

Tom Bateman
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

Image source, Reuters

We’ve been on the road south to Zaporizhzhia with long waits at Ukrainian military checkpoints - armed men are on the lookout for saboteurs amid sandbags and anti-tank obstacles.

It’s one of the last towns before the front line and is the planned destination point for an official aid escort for civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol.

But the International Committee of the Red Cross says its teams have again been unable to reach the south-eastern port city of Mariupol to stage evacuations on Monday.

The group has tried unsuccessfully for days to access the besieged city to escort bus loads of civilians back into government-controlled territory.

Tens of thousands of people are still trapped with scant access to food, water and electricity after weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.

Some private cars and buses have been able to make their way Zaporizhzhia, which is still receiving refugees.

Meanwhile air raid sirens sounded on Monday morning further north in the city of Dnipro. Fuel stores were reportedly struck by missile attacks there on Saturday as Ukraine prepares for attempts at a renewed Russian advance in the east.

More now on the four bodies that were found in a shallow grave in the village of Motyzhyn after being allegedly shot dead by Russian military, as the BBC's Yogita Limaye reported earlier.

The bodies have been identified as those of the head of the village Olha Sukhenko, her husband and her son. The fourth body has not been identified.

Olha Sukhenko was born in 1971. Her husband, Igor, was five years older, while her son Oleksander was born in 1996, our correspondent reports.

The family were taken hostage by Russian invaders 10 days ago, the head of the village of Makariv, Vadym Tokar, said on Telegram.

The Russian military allegedly came to Sukhenko house where they conducted searches, seized a car and left.

"They wanted to take Olha only, but her husband insisted he would go with her - after six hours, they also took her son away," Kyiv Regional Council Deputy Head Tetiana Semenova was quoted by Ukrainian media as saying.

She said there is a suspicion that "a traitor was acting in the village, who told the occupiers, where the head and active villagers lived".

Image source, EPA

Evidence of apparent Russian atrocities in Ukraine is mounting. The BBC's Yogita Limaye has seen a shallow grave in the village of Motyzhyn, west of Kyiv, where the bodies of four people allegedly shot dead by Russian forces were left.

Three of the bodies have been identified as members of one family, including the head of the village, Olha Sukhenko. The fourth body has not been identified.

Ukraine has accused Russian troops of a “deliberate massacre” after the bodies of at least 20 people wearing civilian clothes were found on streets in Bucha.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described the alleged atrocities in Bucha as an "act" that was "staged" several days after Russian forces withdrew, according to Tass news agency.

"We categorically reject all allegations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He said Russian "experts at the ministry of defence" had "identified signs of video fakes and various fakes", without providing any evidence.

Michael Clarke, a defence and security analyst at the think tank Rusi, in London, says that these kind of responses are part of a Russian playbook.

He told Sky News earlier:

As we've been reporting, there's been widespread international shock and condemnation over images of dead civilians in the streets of Bucha, near Kyiv. Here's a reminder of the geography.

Hostomel airport, Bucha and Irpin to the north-west of the capital, Kyiv, were key locations as Ukrainian forces battled to prevent Russia troops from encircling the capital. All have seen intense fighting.

In recent days, Russian forces have been withdrawing back towards Belarus and Russia, and journalists have been able to enter the three areas as Ukrainian forces have secured control.

Image source, Getty

If you're just joining us, here's the latest on the killings in Bucha and other areas around Kyiv abandoned by Russian forces, as well as the ongoing international fallout.

A warning that some readers may find details in this post and others below distressing.

More evidence of atrocities

• The BBC's Yogita Limaye has visited the basement of a home in Bucha where the bodies of five men wearing civilian clothes were left. They had their hands bound behind their backs and appeared to have been shot dead
• She has also seen a shallow grave in the village of Motyzhyn - west of Kyiv - that contained the bodies of four people allegedly shot dead by Russian forces
• Images continue to emerge of bodies in the streets of Bucha and nearby Irpin
• Ukrainian authorities say the bodies of 410 civilians have been found in the areas around Kyiv so far - the BBC can't independently verify this figure

International response and Zelensky anger

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited Bucha, where he said that Russia had carried out war crimes and genocide
• Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he agreed the killings should be classified as genocide
• French president Emmanuel Macron called for more sanctions on Russia's oil and coal exports in response

• Germany's economic minister Robert Habeck said his country was "working towards" and embargo on Russian energy but won't be imposing one immediately
• EU Council president Charles Michel said further EU sanctions and support for Ukraine were "on their way"
• The Kremlin has repeated denials that Russian forces have killed civilians

Elsewhere on the ground

• Ukraine said on Sunday it had retaken the entire Kyiv region
• The UK's Ministry of Defence says Russian forces continue to "consolidate and reorganise" their offensive to focus on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine
• Ukraine's military has claimed Russia is beginning a covert mobilisation of reservists, a move previously ruled out by President Putin
• The Red Cross says its teams have still been unable to reach Mariupol - a southern port city besieged by Russian forces - to stage evacuations on Monday

"Indeed, this is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people."

That's what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview last night.

Genocide is defined as a mass extermination of a particular group of people - typified by the efforts of the Nazis to eradicate Jews in the 1940s.

But behind that simple definition is a complicated tangle of legal concepts concerning what constitutes genocide.

The United Nations Genocide Convention, external came into effect in 1951 and defines genocide as committing any of the following acts with "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group":

• Killing members of the group
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members
• Deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction, in whole or in part
• Putting measures in place to prevent births within the group
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

The convention imposes a duty on those who have signed up to it to prevent and punish genocide.

However, since its adoption it's come under criticism from different sides - mostly by people frustrated with the difficulty of applying it to specific cases. Some have argued that the definition is too narrow; others that it is devalued by overuse.

Read more here.

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Bucha

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited Bucha, as more evidence of atrocities near Kyiv continues to emerge.

He inspected the road on which a Russian column was ambushed and spoke to local residents. He reiterated that Russia had carried out war crimes and genocide in Ukraine.

Asked by the BBC whether it was still possible to discuss peace with Russia, he said: "Yes, because Ukraine must have peace. We are in Europe in the 21st century. We will continue efforts diplomatically and militarily."

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Image source, Reuters

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, has compared evidence of civilian killings near the Ukrainian capital to scenes from a horror film.

"Things we are seeing now in Irpin and Bucha – these are horror scenes. Unfortunately, they do not come from movies", he has said, EVN reports.

"This is reality. This is an awful reality when we see civilians with hands tied behind their backs.

"I do not understand any person who could do this. But I am convinced the same scenes are numerous in many other Ukrainian cities.

"The aggressor must pay for this – pay a heavy price for the life of thousands of Ukrainians.

"We will not forgive what has been done to our cities and to our inhabitants."