Kiev authorities have finished excavating a mass grave in a forest near the Ukrainian city of Izium, in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, that killed 447, including 215 women and five children.
“The work continued for a week without interruption. The bodies of 447 people were removed. Of this total, 215 are women, 194 men, five children and 22 soldiers. In addition, the remains of 11 people 447 dead were taken from the graves. Of these, 215 are women, 194 men, 5 children and 22 soldiers,” said the head of Ukraine’s National Police.
According to Igor Klymenko, the remains of 11 people whose gender has yet to be determined have also been found.
Local media reported that Klymenko noticed that many exhumed bodies showed signs of torture.
Police criminologists and forensic doctors now face an even more complex task of identifying each of the fatalities.
“Their families should bury them as people,” the Ukrainian National Police added.
According to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegoubov, quoted on the social network Telegram, most of the bodies show signs of violent death and at least 30 show signs of torture.”
“There are bodies with ropes around their necks, their hands tied, their limbs broken or gunshot wounds. Many men had their genitals amputated,” Sinegoubov continued, referring to evidence of the “terrible torture” inflicted on the population.
Several hundred graves with a cross and a mass grave were discovered in mid-September near the city of Izium, which was under Russian occupation for several months before being recaptured by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian police also claimed to have discovered “torture chambers” in the region, including in Izium.
Russian forces have been accused of numerous abuses in areas under their control in Ukraine, most notably in Bucha, outside Kiev, where corpses of civilians were discovered after their withdrawal from the area in late March.
Moscow denied committing these crimes and considered the discovery of bodies in Izium a “lie”.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already resulted in more than 13 million people fleeing — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.4 million to European countries — according to the most recent UN data, which rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
