Russian troops tortured and executed the mayor of a small village town along with her husband and their son, according to media reports.
Olga Sukhenko, the mayor of the suburb of Motyzhyn outside of Kyiv, was shot and thrown into a pit in a forest with her family. They were kidnapped on March 23.
"The occupiers suspected they were collaborating with our military, giving us locations of where to target our artillery," Ukrainian Interior Ministry advisor Anton Gerashchenko said in a message posted on the Telegram social media app. "The scum killed her, her son and her husband after torturing them.”
A Reuters reporter saw the bodies in a shallow grave.
The report comes a day after Ukraine officials found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv as part of an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia, but some witnesses are so traumatized by their ordeal that they are unable to speak, the country's top prosecutor said on Sunday.
After Russia withdrew from some areas around Kyiv, the mayor in Bucha, a liberated town 23 miles northwest of the capital, said that 300 residents had been killed by Russian forces while Chechen fighters controlled the area.
Russia has denied the allegations that its troops killed civilians in Bucha. Moscow says no residents suffered from any violence from Russian forces and accused Kyiv of staging what it cast as a provocation concocted for Western media.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.