Houses destroyed and damaged after Russian attack on civilian neighbourhood in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“A mass grave of people was found in Izium in the Kharkiv region. The necessary procedures have already begun there. More information – clear, verifiable information – should be available tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address.
A Ukrainian serviceman uses a metal detector to inspect a mass grave in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 which contains Ukrainian soldiers who were killed during the fighting against Russians near the beginning of the war. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian paratroopers drive on the vehicle with Ukrainian flag on the pantone bridge across Siverskiy-Donets river in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Zelenskyy invoked the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass civilian graves and evidence of alleged war crimes.
“Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium. … Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it. The world must bring Russia to real responsibility for this war,” he said.
Oleg Kotenko, the Commissioner for Issues of Missing Persons under Special Circumstances uses his smartphone to film the grave a Ukrainian soldier in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 who had been killed by Russian forces near the beginning of the war. A mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and unknown buried civilians was found in the forest of recently recaptured city of Izium. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Russia’s forces left Izium and other parts of the Kharkiv region last week amid a stunning Ukrainian counteroffensive. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy made a rare trip outside Ukraine’s capital to watch the raising of the national flag at Izium’s city hall.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands at the checkpoint near the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Sergei Bolvinov, a senior investigator for Ukrainian police in the eastern Kharkiv region, told British TV broadcaster Sky News that a pit contained more than 440 bodies was discovered near Izium after Kyiv’s forces swept in. He described the grave as “one of the largest burial sites in any one liberated city.”
Oleg Kotenko, the Commissioner for Issues of Missing Persons under Special Circumstances looks at the unidentified graves of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 who had been killed by Russian forces near the beginning of the war. A mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and unknown buried civilians was found in the forest of recently recaptured city of Izium. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“We know that some (of the people buried in the pit) were shot, some died from artillery fire, from so called mine-explosion traumas. Some died from airstrikes. Also, we have information that a lot of bodies have not been identified yet” Bolvinov said.
Oleg Kotenko, the Commissioner for Issues of Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, left, speaks to his comrade near the unidentified graves of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 who had been killed by Russian forces near the beginning of the war. A mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and unknown buried civilians was found in the forest of recently recaptured city of Izium. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister, Yevhen Enin, said Thursday night that evidence of the occupying Russian troops setting up multiple “torture chambers” where both Ukrainian citizens and foreigners were detained “in completely inhuman conditions” was found in cities and towns recaptured during Kyiv’s sweeping advance into the Kharkiv region.
Svetlana Iezyk, right, Volodymyr Iezyk, left, and Andrii Iezyk gather at the entrance of their apartment in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 which since the beginning of the war has been without gas, water and electricity. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“We have already come across the exhumation of individual bodies, not only with traces of a violent death, but also of torture – cut off ears, etc. This is just the beginning,” said in an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV. His description matched at least half a dozen reports made by Kharkiv regional police representatives since last weekend.
A view of unidentified graves of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers in a cemetery in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 who had been killed by Russian forces near the beginning of the war. A mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and unknown buried civilians was found in the forest of recently recaptured city of Izium. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
He claimed that among those held at one of the sites were students from an unspecified Asian country who were captured at a Russian checkpoint as they tried to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Andrii Iezyk shows the destroyed flat in his house in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. Iezyk’s family have since the beginning of the war lived without gas, water and electricity. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Enin did not specify where the students were held, although he named the small cities of Balakliya and Volchansk as two locations where the alleged torture chambers were found. His account could not be immediately verified independently.
Iuriy Usatyi, a Ukrainian national guard serviceman walks on the destroyed Russian APC’s at the checkpoint near the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“All these traces of war crimes are now carefully documented by us. And we know from the experience of Bucha that the worst crimes can only be exposed over time,” Enin said, in a reference to a Kyiv suburb where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered following the Russian army’s withdrawal from the area in March.
A Ukrainian serviceman sits in a tank, in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Earlier Thursday, Zelenskyy said that during the five months the Russians occupied the region, they “only destroyed, only deprived, only took away. They left behind devastated villages; in some of them there is not a single undamaged house. The occupiers turned schools into garbage dumps, and churches – shattered, literally turned into toilets.”
A view of unidentified graves of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers in a cemetery in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 who had been killed by Russian forces near the beginning of the war. A mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and unknown buried civilians was found in the forest of recently recaptured city of Izium. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
