Oleg Senegubov, the region’s governor, announced tonight that “99 percent” of the bodies exhumed on Friday from a mass grave in the eastern town of Izyum after they were seized from the Russians “show signs of violent death.”
For his part, the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine Dmitry Lubinets said in Telegram: “Most likely, more than a thousand citizens of Ukraine were tortured and killed in the lands liberated from the Kharkiv region.”
Sengupov said on Telegram that he found in Izyum “several bodies handcuffed behind their backs and a man buried with a collar around his neck. Of course, they were tortured and executed,” publishing photographs of hundreds of graves found near Izyum.
He added that at this place, which was discovered by the Ukrainian authorities, “450 bodies of civilians with signs of violent death and torture were hidden.”
Earlier Friday, an AFP correspondent was able to see at least one body tied with a rope at the same location, but could not determine if it belonged to a civilian or military.
And through Telegram, Senegopov confirmed that among the bodies exhumed by “two hundred employees and specialists” who worked on the spot, “there are also children.”
He explained that “the bodies will be sent for an autopsy to determine the true cause of death”, adding that “each body will be the subject of an investigation and will be evidence of war crimes committed by Russia in international courts.”
And he believed that “the scale of the crimes committed (by Russians) in Izyum is enormous”, condemning “bloody and cruel terrorism.”
Moscow has previously been accused of committing war crimes elsewhere in Ukraine, especially around Kyiv in the first weeks of the conflict, but it has consistently denied these accusations.
