in Izioum, 445 crosses and as many bodies to be exhumed

It’s a small sandy path that winds through a pine forest with light orange trunks, a forest no one would want to enter. We first come across deminers who inspect the area, then we go deep into this forest. And very quickly, we have nausea. At the end of the road, 445 wooden crosses, the scientific police are busy. We are in Izioum, 150 km from Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, occupied by the Russians for nearly six months. Ukrainian forces retook the city a week ago and the authorities were able to see the drama that was played out there, announcing the discovery of a mass grave. The scientific police proceeded Friday, September 16 to the exhumation of part of these bodies.

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Difficult to breathe, the smell rises. There are about thirty agents of the scientific police there. They seem exhausted. They are resting. Some are leaning on their shovels.

We are still moving forward. Again the scientific police but this time, the men work. Blue or white coats, body bags, nose masks, they dig. We discover dark masses unearthed from the yellow sand. There are 445 of these bodies to be exhumed. They can be counted easily because in front of each grave dug in the sand, there is a wooden cross with a number, from 1 to 445.

According to the first elements of the investigation, they are inhabitants of the city killed during bombardments at the beginning of the invasion. “We are in front of a mass grave where civilians were buried, explains Oleg Sinegoubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region. According to the first elements, they did not die of natural death. Here, there are many children among the bodies.” According to him, most of the victims were killed during the Russian bombardments at the start of the invasion.

“When Izium was occupied by Russian soldiers, continues Oleg Sinugubov, we had information that many civilians had died because of the shelling of apartment buildings. We couldn’t verify that information at the time, but now we have facts.” Facts that need to be substantiated and clarified. That’s why these bodies are exhumed. To give them a name, also, an identity. And therefore to determine the causes of death because while it is likely that most of the victims died during the bombings, some bodies also show signs of torture.

“There are corpses with their arms tied behind their backs, another with a rope around their necks. It is certain that 99% of the people here succumbed to violent deaths.”

Governor of Kharkiv region

at franceinfo

In this forest, the investigation has only just begun, it will be long. According to the Ukrainian authorities, several people have been arrested. They are suspected of having buried the bodies in a hurry. These are, according to the prosecutor, residents of the city who would have improvised gravediggers in the service of the Russians during the occupation of Izioum, to “clean” the bombed houses. And then there will be an investigation into the corpses of these 17 Ukrainian soldiers also found in this forest, a few meters from those of civilians.

Access to Izioum was very supervised and very prepared. There is a strong desire on the Ukrainian side to communicate on this discovery. The army had chartered buses and minibuses for the journalists, nearly 200. On the spot, the officials insisted a lot on the traces of torture found on the corpses. But these statements must be taken with caution, only a dozen bodies were exhumed today. Some of these bodies bore signs of torture, but it is too early to draw general conclusions. According to the inhabitants we met, there were no mass massacres committed by the Russians in Izium. No summary executions, as in Irpin or Boutcha, north of kyiv. But there are still these bodies, 445. Civilians for the most part, probably killed during the bombardments of the city at the start of the invasion.