Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday renewed calls for the global community to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism in light of the discovery of a mass burial site in an area recently recaptured from Russian forces.

Zelenskyy relayed information from Ukrainian authorities which said some of the remains recovered from the site in a pine forest near the city of Izium bore signs of torture.

He said both soldiers and civilians, including a complete family, were among the more than 400 dead.

"Today I am addressing everyone – America and Europe," Zelenskyy said in a video statement.

"Russia has already become the largest source of terrorism in the world, and no other terrorist power leaves behind so many deaths. This must be recognized legally."

The president went on to say that a lack of such recognition would equal a "betrayal" of all those who died on Russian-occupied territories.

Ukrainian forces got access to the site after recapturing the northeastern city and much of the wider Kharkiv region in a counteroffensive that suddenly shifted the momentum in the nearly seven-month war.

Associated Press journalists who visited the site saw graves amid the pine trees, marked with simple wooden crosses. Most were numbered - and the count went into the 400s.

It was not clear who was buried under many of the dirt mounds or how all of them died.

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