There are bodies on the battlefield, lying in farm fields or inside burned out tanks, as Ukrainian troops swept through Russian-occupied territory in a major counteroffensive this month.
The Russian army was pushed all the way back across the border into Russia after being held for months. Black smoke billows from Ukrainian territory after the shelling of Russia from inside the country.
Despite the shelling, a small group of soldiers walk along a rutted mud track to the location of a dead Ukrainian combatant.
There is a risk. Vitalii, a commander in the National Guard whose men are searching for bodies of servicemen from both sides and of civilians, said that they are always risking their lives. For security reasons, he asked to be identified by his first name.
A dead Ukrainian is lying on his back in body armor and a hat to block out the sun. There has been a body there for a while.
They take the remains to a charred Russian tank after documenting the scene. The body bag containing the remains of the Russian is only carried by one of the team.
Vitalii said that the details of the sites recorded and passed on to investigators will be followed by autopsies.
There is a village just over a mile from the Russian border that was taken over by the Ukrainians.
The team is looking for graves of people who may have been abused in a makeshift prison.
There is a large cell in the basement behind the supermarket. Three sleeping spots on top of sheets of Styrofoam are shown in dirty sleeping bags and duvets. Two buckets were used as toilets.
Outside the barred cell, three dilapidated chairs stand around a table with cigarette butt and empty pumpkin seed husks on the floor.
The prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region said that the room was used as a torture cell during the occupation of the area.
The prosecutor's office said that Russian forces had set up a local police force that ran the prison. An investigation is being conducted.
It was not possible to independently confirm the claims of what happened in the room.
In the city of Izium, Ukrainian officials say there are more than 400 graves near the city's cemetery. Some of the bodies of civilians and soldiers show signs of torture, according to President Zelenskyy.
The villages of this border area were ravaged by war, with houses bombed and burned, roads destroyed, and cars smashed.
Local people returned to see what was left of their homes after the Russians left.
In the nearby village of Prudyanka, Larysa Letiucha said that it was like hell before they left. It flew all over the place. It sounded like it was going to explode. The door was blasted off as we hid.
After Ukrainian soldiers retook the village, she returned to check on her property.
I was horrified. She said that she couldn't pull herself together after seeing what was left of her home. We lived here our entire lives. We were working on it. Our entire life was spent here.
There is a patch missing from the explosion and the ceiling is leaking. The back part of her parents' house is missing. The house is a mess.
Even though we live in the village, our houses are comfortable. I think it is a terrible thing. I don't know when this will be renovated or rebuilt.
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