Ukraine said on Monday it was investigating a suspected mass grave located in the northeast, near the border with Russia, ten days after discovering more than 440 graves and a mass grave near Izium in the same region.
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The site investigated by the Ukrainian authorities is an industrial poultry farm located near Kozatcha Lopan, less than three kilometers from the border with Russia.
During the Russian occupation of the area in recent months, the Russian army used it as a hangar to hide their tanks.
The Ukrainian authorities mentioned Monday “up to 100 bodies”, without however giving more details.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the American channel CBS News that “two more mass graves, large mass graves with hundreds of people” buried had been discovered, without specifying the location of these discoveries.
In early September, Ukrainian troops led a counter-offensive that allowed them to retake large swaths of territory in this region, reaching the internationally recognized border between Ukraine and Russia.
But the alleged mass grave today remains within the firing range of Russian artillery. And the Ukrainian teams are still working on demining the site, which makes research by the scientific teams de facto impossible at this stage.
According to Lioudmila Vakoulenko, head of the local administration of Kozatcha Lopan, the Ukrainian army had tried for the first time to retake the city from the Russians in April, without however succeeding.
After the recapture of the city, “the soldiers told me that they had seen a burial place for the soldiers, but they did not tell me how many” graves there would be on the site, he said. she stated on Monday.
The Ukrainian authorities suspect the Moscow troops of having buried Ukrainian soldiers there, but also their Russian comrades in arms and killed civilians.
In mid-September, the Ukrainian authorities had found more than 440 graves and a mass grave near Izium, in a pine forest on the edge of this northeastern city taken over by forces from kyiv to those of Moscow.
Since the beginning of its military intervention in Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly denied that its troops have committed abuses. The Kremlin called the discovery of the hundreds of graves in Izium a “lie”.