A mass grave and more than 400 graves were discovered on Thursday September 15 after the Russians left in the middle of a forest at the entrance to the city of Izium, located in eastern Ukraine and which had 47,000 inhabitants before the war. Ukrainian police, soldiers and deminers were dispatched to the scene.
Ukrainian authorities began exhumations on Friday to determine the causes of their deaths, which raises possible war crimes. The mass grave contained the bodies of seventeen Ukrainian soldiers, according to local authorities. It was surmounted by a cross with the inscription: “Ukrainian army 17 people. Izioum, from the morgue », as noted by journalists from Agence France-Presse. The bodies will be exhumed for an autopsy in Kharkiv, where DNA tests will be carried out.
Graves are located all around the pit. According to witnesses and a Ukrainian investigator, some victims were killed by bullets and others by artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. Bodies show signs of torture, said the head of the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office, Oleksandr Filchakov. At least one exhumed corpse had its hands tied with rope. However, it was impossible to immediately establish whether it was a civilian or a soldier, the body being very damaged.
Ten “torture rooms”
According to local authorities, 443 graves were discovered in total, of which probably ” a majority “ of civilians. They were dug during the fighting when the city was taken by Russian forces in March and during the Russian occupation, which ended on the night of Saturday September 10 to Sunday September 11, thanks to the counter- Ukrainian offensive launched at the beginning of September.
Some tombs are surmounted by a wooden cross bearing numbers, others have names. According to Oleg Kotenko, government official for the search for missing persons, “the graves that do not bear names are those of people [trouvés] in the street “. “There are many people who died of starvationhe added. This part of the city was isolated, without supplies. People were stuck, nothing was working. »
For his part, the Ukrainian police chief, Igor Klymenko, announced the discovery of ten “torture rooms” in localities recaptured from the Russians in the Kharkiv region, including six in Izium and two in the town of Balakliïa.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that it wants to send ” soon “ a team in Izioum to “determine the circumstances of death” buried people. Some graves could contain several bodies.
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