Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday denounced the crimes of an army of “torturers” after the discovery of hundreds of bodies summarily buried in an area recaptured from the Russians, including those of people “tortured and executed”, according to local authorities .
“99%” of the bodies exhumed on Friday in a forest on the outskirts of Izium, a town in eastern Ukraine taken back from the Russians last week, “showed signs of violent death”, the governor said in the evening. regional, Oleg Synegoubov.
“There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and one person is buried with a rope around their neck. Obviously these people were tortured and executed,” he said on Telegram.
According to him, a total of “450 bodies of civilians bearing traces of violent death and torture” were buried on this site. “There were also children” among the bodies exhumed during the day by the “200 agents and experts” working on the site, he added.
Ukraine’s president, in a video posted on Telegram, promised “terrifyingly just punishment” to those responsible for the alleged crimes. “Russia leaves only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers. Deprived of everything that is human,” he added.
Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Loubinets said on Telegram that there were “probably more than 1,000 Ukrainian citizens tortured and killed in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region”.
Russia is acting in ‘appalling ways and it shows and repeats […]. We see what it leaves in its wake,” commented the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, in Washington.
The EU also said it was “deeply shocked”. “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,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in a press release.
“Torture Rooms”
On the ground, near Izium, Ukrainian investigators began Friday to exhume bodies in a forest where 443 graves were discovered, including a pit containing the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.
A grave bore a cross with the inscription: “Ukrainian army, 17 people. Izioum, from the morgue”, according to AFP journalists on the spot. Men in white coveralls were digging in the sandy soil.
On the same site, a journalist was able to see at least one body with its hands tied with a rope, without being able to establish immediately whether it was a civilian or a soldier, the body being too damaged .
“The bodies will be sent for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death,” Governor Synegoubov said.
“Every death will be investigated and become evidence of Russia’s war crimes in international courts,” he added. “The scale of the crimes committed in Izioum 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 to Izioum to “determine the circumstances of the death of these people”.
The head of the Ukrainian police, Igor Klymenko, for his part announced the discovery of 10 “torture rooms” in localities taken back 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.
Putin wants to continue the war
On the diplomatic side, present alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin for a regional summit in Uzbekistan, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine “as soon as possible”, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that now is “not the time for war”.
After meeting his Chinese counterpart and ally Xi Jinping on Thursday, Mr. Putin first assured that he wanted to end the war “as quickly as possible”, accusing kyiv of “refusing any process of negotiations”.
Russia is under “pressure” to end the conflict in Ukraine, commented the head of American diplomacy after these exchanges in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). “I believe what we are hearing from China and India reflects concerns around the world about the impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, not just for the Ukrainian people. “, underlined Antony Blinken.
But Mr Putin then indicated that his army’s offensive would continue in Ukraine. “The plan does not require change […] We are in no rush,” he said Friday.
Moscow also suffered a setback Friday at the United Nations, whose members allowed Volodymyr Zelensky to speak by video message at the Annual General Assembly next week.
Massive bombings
On the front, fighting and shelling continued.
In the east, separatist authorities in Lugansk announced the death of a local pro-Russian prosecutor and his deputy, killed by an explosion. Pro-Russian authorities have reported other attacks against occupation cadres in southern Ukraine.
In the Kharkiv region, 12 people were injured in “massive” Russian shelling in areas recently taken over by the Ukrainians, and four more people in the city of Kharkiv itself, according to regional authorities.
The Ukrainian presidency reported “positional battles” in the Lugansk region, while in the Donetsk region, Russian bombardments, particularly on Bakhmout, left five dead and six injured.
On the southern front, where the Ukrainian forces encounter more resistance than in Kharkiv, the “situation remains difficult”, according to the same source.