Numbers instead of names – the Ukrainian authorities find numerous graves in liberated areas of eastern Ukraine. It is probably not a mass grave, but the UN calls the finds shocking.
After the withdrawal of Russian troops, a “mass grave” was found in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The necessary procedural actions have already begun there,” said the head of state in a video message distributed in Kyiv. Today there should be more detailed information, said Zelenskyj. Ukrainian media reported that more than 440 bodies had been found in a forest – more bodies were being sought.
The search is made more difficult by mines, said Ukrainian missing persons officer Oleh Kotenko, according to the Unian agency. Nevertheless, every effort is being made – especially to be able to hand over the bodies of fallen soldiers to their families: “We are continuing our work (…) so that the families can return the soldiers who died for Ukraine as quickly as possible honor appropriately,” said Kotenko.
Isjum probably not a new Bucha
According to the Ukrainian Missing Persons Commissioner, the bodies found in the liberated small town of Izyum in eastern Ukraine are not a mass grave, but rather a large number of individual graves. “I don’t want to call it a boucha – here people were buried, let’s say, in a more civilized manner,” Oleh Kotenko told the Nastoyashchee Vremya TV channel.
At the end of March, hundreds of dead civilians, some with signs of torture, were found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Since then, Bucha has been considered a symbol for the most serious war crimes in the Russian war of aggression.
The people of Izyum, on the other hand, probably died when Russian troops fired heavily on the city in the course of the conquest at the end of March, Kotenko said. “The majority died under fire, we already understood that from the data: people died when they (the Russians) shelled the city with artillery,” Kotenko said. Some of the funeral services did not know who the many dead people were. That’s why there are only numbers on some crosses. Authorities are currently trying to find a register of where the bodies were found.
The investigative team from the UN human rights office in Geneva wants to visit Isjum as soon as possible, a spokeswoman in Geneva said. The find is shocking and the cause of death of each deceased must be investigated.
Russian troops flee the area
According to Ukrainian information, the Russians fled the area on Saturday after a counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces. The Defense Ministry in Moscow had spoken of a “regrouping” of its troops, while even sources close to the Kremlin spoke of a devastating defeat. Zelenskyj visited Izyum on Wednesday. Journalists are to be taken to the mass grave this Friday. “We want the world to know what really happened and what the Russian occupation led to,” said Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy: “Russia leaves death everywhere”
“Bucha, Mariupol and now, unfortunately, also Izyum: Russia leaves death everywhere and has to answer for it. The world must hold Russia to real responsibility for this war,” the head of state demanded. After the withdrawal of Russian troops in the spring from the Kiev suburb of Bucha and in numerous other places, including the port city of Mariupol, which was occupied by Moscow, Ukraine complained about the most serious war crimes.
According to Ukrainian authorities, hundreds of civilians were killed in Bucha and thousands in Mariupol. According to the Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda, the head of the police investigation agency in the Kharkiv region, Serhiy Bolvynov, spoke of a mass grave with more than 440 bodies in a forest in Izyum.
Source: Stern
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