Ukraine claims some bodies discovered at mass burial site in Izium show ‘signs of torture’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some of the bodies discovered in Izium had “signs of torture,” and he blamed Russia for what he called “cruelty and terrorism”
Amid the ongoing raging war in Eastern Europe, Ukraine claimed that mass graves were found in the city of Izyum. As Ukrainian investigators on Friday were looking through the mass grave site following the recapture from Russian forces, the country’s Defence Ministry informed that nearly 440 “unmarked” burials were discovered in the city. Meawhile, Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some of the bodies discovered in Izium had “signs of torture,” and he blamed Russia for what he called “cruelty and terrorism”.
In his night speech video to the Ukrainian citizens, the President said that at a mass grave site close to Izium, the exhumation of bodies has still been happening. He clarified that more than 440 burials have so far been discovered and the number of individuals buried there cannot be determined because investigations were still underway.
Zelenskyy said, “There is already clear evidence of torture, humiliating treatment of people… Moreover, there is evidence that Russian soldiers, whose positions were not far from this place, shot at the buried just for fun.” He even added, “The world must react to all this. Russia has repeated in Izium what it did in Bucha.” He also announced that the UN organisations are getting ready to send a team of personnel to the area close to Izium so they may witness what the “Russian terrorists” did and report it to the rest of the UN system.
In the month of April, Izium was the target of intense Russian artillery assaults. According to the CNN report, during its five-month occupation, the city, which is close to the border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk provinces, became a key military centre. On Saturday, Ukrainian forces regained control of the city, dealing a tactical setback to Russia’s military offensive in the east.
Mass grave in Ukraine
At the burial site, there were mostly individual graves, and wooden crosses are positioned at the top of the dirt mounds. Some have handwritten names and numbers on them, CNN reported. Service personnel in Kyiv discovered the mass grave that contained bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks, signs that some of the dead had been subjected to extreme torture.
Following this, the European Union presidency called for the creation of an international tribunal for war crimes against Russia.
In the meantime, Russia claimed that the Kyiv government’s allegations of mass graves being discovered in the Ukrainian city of Izyum are yet another “monstrous provocation” as part of its efforts to recreate Bucha and arouse public opinion in the West.
