A macabre new discovery. This Friday, September 16, Ukraine claims to have discovered “450 graves” in Izioum. The city, which is located in the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country, was recently recaptured from Russian forces. “This is just one of the massive burial sites discovered near Izium,” said Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, in a tweet. “For months, terror, violence, torture and Mass murders reigned supreme in the occupied territories,” he added, before calling on Ukraine’s supporters to send in weapons so as not to “leave people alone with evil.”
Asked by the British television channel Sky News, Sergei Botvinov, head of the regional police, explained: “We know that some were killed, others died from artillery fire, trauma from explosion of mines. Some died in airstrikes, and many bodies have not yet been identified. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called for “Ukrainian and international journalists” to go there. want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to. Boutcha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium…”. In order to investigate these allegations, the United Nations said it wanted to send a team to the scene.
Russian soldiers have been accused by kyiv of several abuses committed in the occupied territories. On the outskirts of kyiv, in Boutcha, corpses of executed civilians had been discovered after their withdrawal from the region. Abuses that Russia denies having committed. Interview with Galia Ackerman, historian and editorial director of the Desk Russia website.
L’Express: Ukraine claims to have discovered a new mass grave. The indignation which followed the revelation of that of Boutcha does not seem to have stopped the Russians…
Galia Ackerman: Since the takeover of Butcha, the Russians began to broadcast everywhere that the Ukrainians entered the liberated towns and shot the collaborators. I think it was preparation for what the Ukrainians were going to find. As in Boutcha, many corpses have been buried, but each time the town has to be cleared in order to really be able to circulate there. Meanwhile, knowing full well that they were the perpetrators of these atrocities, the Russians kept saying that these shootings came from the Ukrainians.
No wonder the Russians learned nothing after Boutcha. Let’s not forget that Moscow’s justification for this whole war is false, and so is the information it spreads… Investigators uncover dozens of war crimes every day. They have already committed so much horror that if they have to be judged, one more or less crime does not change much.
What we see here is the consequence of deliberate behavior on the part of the Russians. We are talking about soldiers who, each time they occupy a locality, try to sort out the population. They seek there – and inevitably find there – people who have represented the Ukrainian authorities, or who have worked there simply as civil servants or employees, and who become their victims.
What do these discoveries of massacres say about the Russian command structure? Do you think these are isolated acts, beyond the planned control of the government, or institutionalized practices?
I believe there are both. This behavior corresponds to this doctrine of denazification pushed by Putin, which in reality simply means the elimination of the Ukrainian state. The whole of the Ukrainian regime and the people who work for it are declared Nazis, and can therefore be victims of this objective of “denazification” and “demilitarization”.
That being said, this doctrine does not exclude individual behaviors and actions. Atrocities are being committed for no reason in this war, because the behavior of the soldiers is completely unbridled. These soldiers know very well that whatever they do, they will not be judged by their own hierarchy.
Zelensky immediately requested the presence of international and Ukrainian journalists on site. What does this reflex say about the battle of stories that is being played out?
Zelensky does this whenever atrocities are uncovered. It is the continuation of a political line which has been his since the beginning of the invasion. The atrocities found also demonstrate to the Ukrainian people and troops who, what and why they are fighting. This does not surprise people in itself, but the magnitude of the findings confirms the opinion that Western societies and public opinion have already formed about what is happening in Ukraine.
This is very counterproductive for the Russians, because these atrocities are a mobilizing factor for the Ukrainians. Internationally, this is an additional reason to support Ukraine militarily and financially.
Ukrainian authorities said on Friday that they discovered torture chambers in Izium. What do you think ?
This does not surprise me. We know that in the so-called democratic republic of Donetsk, torture was practiced on a large scale on all those who were suspected of collaborating in any way with the Ukrainian authorities. Its use is also very widely attested in Russian prisons and penal colonies.
Unfortunately, there are also cases of very commonplace torture in Russian police stations… We are talking about a society that is based on violence. It should never be forgotten: Russian society is plagued by endemic violence.