However, the investigations are only just beginning, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj said on Thursday, according to the domestic news agency Interfax Ukraine. Meanwhile, rockets continued to fall in the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa on Thursday.
“So far, 63 bodies have been found in the Cherson region,” said Monastyrskyj. “But we must be aware that the search has only just begun and many more torture chambers and burial sites are still to be discovered.”
In Cherson, law enforcement officials uncovered 436 cases of war crimes during the Russian occupation. Eleven places of detention were found, including four where torture had taken place. “The investigators are in the process of examining them and recording every case of torture. The bodies of the dead are also being exhumed,” said Monastyrskyj.
A representative of the Kherson prosecutor’s office told the New York Times that testimonies had been collected on 800 arrests by Russian troops in the region. The most common abuses were electric shocks, beatings with plastic or rubber truncheons, and the cutting off of the breathing tube of a gas mask that was pulled over the heads of prisoners.
Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes
Ukraine and international investigators accuse Russia of war crimes in occupied territories. Russia denies its troops have targeted civilians and committed atrocities. Mass graves were found in other areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including some containing the bodies of civilians showing signs of torture.
Under pressure from the Ukrainian army, the Russian occupiers evacuated the regional capital of Cherson in early November and retreated to the southern bank of the Dnipro River. Many roads and buildings, most notably the regional police headquarters, were left mined, Ukraine’s Interior Minister said. During the defusing of the bombs, Ukrainian ordnance clearance personnel had already been killed or injured.
After the rocket hit in Odessa, there were initially no reports of casualties or damage. According to Ukrainian media, explosions were also reported from the eastern city of Dnipro.
According to British estimates, the massive Russian rocket attacks have hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure badly. “Although a large proportion of the missiles were successfully intercepted, Ukraine is facing a significant drop in the power available from its national grid,” the Ministry of Defense said in London on Thursday. “This will affect civilian access to communications, heating and water supplies,” it said, citing intelligence findings.
November 15: Heaviest attack in one day
The attacks on November 15 were probably the most severe attack in one day to date. Russia fired up to 80 long-range missiles on Tuesday afternoon, mostly against energy infrastructure across the country. The missiles were launched from the air, from the sea and from land. The destruction of Ukraine’s national infrastructure has become a core component of the Russian war, it said in London.
General Robert Brieger, chairman of the EU military committee, ruled out that a no-fly zone would be set up in view of the massive attacks. “A no-fly zone would have to be protected with active means, i.e. combat aircraft,” said Brieger on Wednesday evening in the ZiB2. “Such a measure would mean the intervention, the active intervention of Western forces in the conflict and thus an expansion, the effects of which I believe cannot be in the interest of any decision-maker.” Brieger also reported that there was no military-level communication between Brussels and Moscow.
The former Austrian chief of staff also agreed with US General Mark Milley’s assessment that a military victory for Ukraine was not very likely. “Yes, I think General Milley is broadly in agreement here.” Russia has very large resources of materiel, although the morale of the troops is low. In Ukraine it is the opposite, there is very high morale among the population and the military, but the material component is very dependent on support from the West. “In other words, a complete regaining of Ukrainian sovereignty, including Crimea, by military means, I consider that to be a very lofty goal, the realization of which is more than uncertain.” He believes that “ultimately politics and diplomacy must find ways and means to bring both sides to some degree of rapprochement.”
Source: Nachrichten
