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BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission on Monday condemned Russia for "atrocities" after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine.

Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said the Kremlin had shown its "true face" by "targeting, murdering civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, violating international humanitarian law and committing war crimes."

Stano said the perpetrators will be held accountable.

Ukrainian officials said bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around the capital, Kyiv, that were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days.

In Bucha, northwest of the capital, Associated Press journalists saw 21 bodies.

One group of nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base.

They appeared to have been shot at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs.

Western and Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of war crimes before, and the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has opened a probe to investigate the conflict.

But the latest reports ratcheted up the condemnation even further, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some Western leaders going so far as to accuse Russia of genocide

Russia’s Defense Ministry rejected the accusations. It said photos and videos of dead bodies were staged. The ministry said “not a single civilian” in Bucha faced any violent military action.

Prior to his appearance via video at the Grammy Awards, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday called the Russian military "killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army", as more reports emerged of violence allegedly committed by Russian forces in Bucha.

Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture lay scattered in the city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area.

As images of the bodies - of people whom residents said were killed indiscriminately - began to emerge from Bucha, a slew of European leaders condemned the atrocities and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow.

In his latest video statement, the Ukrainian president invited Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former Chancellor of Germany and the former President of France, to visit Bucha and "see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years".

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said on Monday that Russia aims to mobilize 60,000 reservists amid the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Oleksandr Shputun suggested that the "main motivating factor for reservists is material incentives".

He claimed that Russians people believed that "the participants of the war with Ukraine can improve their financial situation through so-called 'trophies', i.e. robbery and looting".

Shputunsaid, "Privates, sergeants, and officers are subject to mobilization. The main regions for mobilization have also been identified: Krasnodar region, Perm region, the Republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Kalmykia. The main motivating factor for reservists is material incentives. Additionally, the Russian population is of the opinion that the participants of the war with Ukraine can improve their financial situation through so-called 'trophies', i.e. robbery and looting."