Both were in need of an embrace, the 12-year-old boy standing in the debris that was once his home. And the matted cat that wandered into the rubble. The child picked up the animal and they clutched one another amid the death and destruction of Chernihiv, a northern Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.

Shells and bombs that rained down on the city for weeks have reduced its buildings and neighborhoods to rubble. An elderly woman collects wooden planks in a street now gutted of homes. One explosion left an enormous crater in the ground alongside decimated homes that appears dozens of feet deep.

As more world leaders Wednesday demanded accountability for war crimes carried out by Russian forces, men in protective gear exhumed bodies of civilians in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Family and friends wept and comforted one another as they mourned the death of Anatoliy Kolesnikov, 30, outside a morgue in Bucha. He was killed by Russian soldiers in his car trying to evacuate from Irpin.

Still, children in Bucha found a place to play. Their cheeks rosy from the chill, they rode bikes, they kicked a ball and they smiled.

This gallery contains graphic content.

Men walk in a street destroyed by shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Children play in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A local resident prepares to cook at an entrance of a building damaged during fighting in Mariupol, in an area that Russian-backed separatists claim to control in the Ukraine city of Mariupol, Wednesday, April 13, 2022.(AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

The father and a friend of Anatoliy Kolesnikov, 30, who was killed by Russian soldiers in his car trying to evacuate from Irpin, mourns his death while waiting outside the morgue in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday , April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A woman collects wooden planks in a street destroyed by shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Engineers inspect the state of destruction of the bridge that connects Kyiv with Irpin, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A school director Iryna Homenko walks in the hall of the school damaged by an airstrike from Russian forces in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Men wearing protective gear exhume the bodies of civilians killed during the Russian occupation in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

A firefighter works at a central stadium damaged by Russian forces' shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Natalya Verbova, 49, and her son Roman Verbovyi, 23, attend the funeral of her husband Andriy Verbovyi, 55, who was killed by Russian soldiers while in the territorial defense in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday , April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

People walk past a crater from an explosion in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Graves of local residents who died during the fighting with Russia are seen in a street behind private houses in an area that Russian-backed separatists claim to control in the Ukraine city of Mariupol, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

Text from AP News story, AP PHOTOS on Day 49: Surrounded by rubble, Ukrainians mourn

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