A soldier walks among the graves found in the forest
Ukraine says hundreds of graves have been found outside Izyum, days after the town was re-taken from Russia.

Wooden crosses, most of them marked with numbers, were discovered in a forest outside the town by advancing Ukrainian forces.

Authorities said they would start exhuming some of the graves on Friday.

It is not yet clear what happened to the victims, but early accounts suggest some may have died from shelling and a lack of access to healthcare.

Speaking on Friday, the head of Ukraine’s national police service said most of the bodies belonged to civilians.

Ihor Klymenko told a news conference that although soldiers were also believed to be buried there, none had been found so far.

Authorities in Ukraine had previously told the BBC more than 400 bodies were thought to be buried at the site.

The UN says it hopes to send a monitoring team to the town in the coming days.

A spokesperson for the body’s human rights’ office said it would be trying to find out whether those who died were civilians or military personnel, and the cause of any of the deaths.

Izyum, invaded in the early days of the war, was used by Russia as a key military hub to supply its forces from the east.