“Evidence of torture” in Izyum: Zelenskyj calls for a tough reaction to Russian crimes

“Evidence of torture” in Izyum
Zelenskyj demands tough reaction to Russian crimes

In Izyum, after the withdrawal of the Russian troops, a terrible picture emerges. The Ukrainian President speaks of torture chambers and hundreds of corpses. Soldiers “shot at the buried just for fun”. Zelenskyj is calling on the West to impose even tougher penalties on Russia.

After the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, which had been liberated from Russian occupation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv called for the international community to react to Moscow’s crimes. Currently, more than 440 graves have been found near Izyum in the Kharkiv Liberated Region. “It is too early to say anything about the number of people buried there, the investigation is ongoing,” said Zelenskyy in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Friday evening.

The 44-year-old warned that the world should not look on as the “terrorist state” kills and tortures Russia. Russia must be punished with even tougher sanctions. “There is already clear evidence of torture, degrading treatment of people. There is also evidence that Russian soldiers, whose positions were not far from this spot, shot at the buried just for fun,” said Zelenskyy.

Russia acted as it did in the spring in Bucha, a suburb of the capital Kyiv, where the bound bodies of civilians were found. Zelenskyj welcomed the fact that the United Nations now wants to send experts to record the actions of “Russian terrorists”.

The United States reacted with dismay

Zelenskyi also reported that after the Russian army withdrew from the Kharkiv region, torture chambers were found in cities. Civilians, including foreigners, were held captive there. Seven medical students from Sri Lanka were rescued and are now being cared for. “We will provide access to tell the world that Russism must be condemned.” The President recalled Kiev’s initiative for an international tribunal to try Russia for its crime of aggression against Ukraine.

More than 400 bodies 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. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his dismay at the bodies found. “This is, horribly, part of an… ongoing story. Whenever the Russian tide pulls back from occupied parts of Ukraine, we see what remains.”

At the end of March, hundreds of dead civilians, some with signs of torture, 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.

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