Ukraine said on Friday it had found some “450 graves” in Izium, a city recently recaptured from Russian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region, a shocking find that President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed on “Russian occupation.”
Thus “four hundred and fifty graves” have been discovered, “this is just one of the massive burial sites discovered near Izium,” an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, tweeted on Friday.
“For months, terror, violence, torture and mass murder reigned in the occupied territories,” he added, again calling on Ukraine’s supporters to send him weapons so as not to “leave people alone with evil.” ”.
A “mass grave”, according to Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday night that a “mass grave” had been discovered in Izium, without further details. “Tomorrow (Friday), Ukrainian and international journalists will come to Izium. We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has brought. Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium…” he said. .
Sergei Botvinov, a regional police officer, spoke of “440 bodies” on Britain’s Sky News TV channel: “We know that some were killed (shot down), others died from shell fire, mine blast injuries. Some they were killed in airstrikes and “many bodies have yet to be identified”.
The UN has announced that it wants to send a team to Izioum to investigate these allegations.
Russian forces have been accused by Ukraine of numerous abuses in the territories they occupy, in particular in Boutcha, on the outskirts of Kyiv from where they withdrew at the end of March and where the bodies of executed civilians had been discovered. Russia denies committing these abuses.
Source: BFM TV
