After the discovery of more than 400 summary graves and a mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers in a region taken back from the Russians, the first exhumations took place this Friday, September 16.
From the exhumations that took place this Friday in a pine forest on the northern edge of Izioum, we will remember the pestilential smell, which gives nausea. Forensic scientists first uncovered a grave containing the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers, who bore marks of torture and who were visibly executed, reports our correspondent, Stephane Siohan.
The specialists then began to extract around 30 of the 443 bodies that were identified on this plot of land. Most of them were covered with a cross, bearing a number, even an identity. According to the Kharkiv prosecutor, many of those buried in this wood were killed during Russian bombardments and airstrikes during the siege of the city in March and April. It is possible that some victims also died of hunger, cold or old age, during this period without water and electricity.
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Nevertheless, torture and executions committed on personalities identified as pro-Ukrainian cannot be ruled out. Thus, a yellow and blue bracelet was found on the wrist of one of the unearthed bodies.
” The bodies will be sent for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death “, underlined the regional governor Oleg Synegoubov. ” The scale of the crimes committed in Izium is enormous “, he underlined, denouncing “ a bloody and brutal terror “. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations immediately indicated that it wanted to send a team on the spot to ” determine the circumstances of the death of these people “.
Zelensky promises ‘terrible punishment’
The President of Ukraine, in a video posted on Telegram, promised ” an awfully just punishment to those responsible for the alleged crimes. ” Russia leaves only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers. Deprived of all that is human “, he added.
Russia is acting appalling way and it is seen and repeated (…). We see what she leaves in her wake “, commented in Washington the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken. ” Russia, its political leaders and all those implicated in the continued violations of international law and international humanitarian law in Ukraine will be held to account “, estimated the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in a press release. French President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile condemned with “ the greatest firmness ” them ” atrocities committed in Izium under Russian occupation “. ” Their authors will have to answer for their actions. There is no peace without justice “, he added in a tweet.
Ukrainian police chief Igor Klymenko announced the discovery of 10 “ torture rooms in localities recaptured from the Russians in the Kharkiv region, including six in Izium and two in the town of Balakliïa. Russian forces have been accused of numerous abuses in areas under their control, including Boutcha, on the outskirts of kyiv, where the bodies of coldly executed civilians were discovered after their withdrawal at the end of March. Moscow denies that its soldiers committed these atrocities.