“A Widespread Practice”
Zelenskyi reports new evidence of torture by Russia
09/17/2022, 10:43 p.m
While the exhumation of the dead continues in Izyum, the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy speaks of evidence of torture by the Russian occupiers. More than ten torture chambers have been discovered in the liberated areas. The perpetrators would be held accountable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of cruel torture after the defeat of his troops in the now liberated Kharkiv region. In the meantime, more than ten torture chambers have been discovered in various cities of the liberated area, Zelenskyy said in a video message distributed by the President’s Office in Kyiv.
“Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied territory,” the President said. He called the occupiers who fled a week ago “racists” and said the “Nazis” behaved the same way. “Racism” combines the words Russia and fascism and is used by Ukrainians as a term for “Russian fascism”.
Like the “Nazis,” the “racists” would be held accountable for their actions on the battlefield and in court, Zelensky said. “We will determine the identities of everyone who tortured and mistreated, who brought these atrocities from Russia here to Ukrainian territory,” emphasized the 44-year-old. When they fled, the occupiers left torture devices behind.
Room with electric torture tools
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities released photos purporting to show torture chambers and equipment. According to Zelenskyj, people were tortured with wires and electric shocks. For example, a torture room with electric torture tools was discovered at a train station in Kosatscha Lopan. New evidence of torture was also found in the bodies found in a forest near the city of Izyum.
The exhumation of the dead at the “mass grave site” continued, Zelenskyy said. More than 440 graves with corpses have been found in Izyum. According to initial findings, people are said to have died when Russia fired heavily on the city at the end of March.
At the end of March, hundreds of dead civilians, some with signs of torture and their hands tied, were also found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Since then, Bucha has been considered a symbol of the most serious war crimes in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.