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Rescue workers in Izyum are resting while the bodies are being exhumed
Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / dpa
According to Ukrainian sources, masses of people have been tortured and killed in the Russian-occupied areas of the Kharkiv region.
More than 400 graves were found in a forest near the city of Izyum alone, including one with 17 soldiers.
According to Ukrainian sources, some of the bodies had their hands tied.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, these are not the only burial sites left behind by the Russian occupiers.
The Ukrainian police chief Igor Klimenko also reported on torture sites that had been found in the liberated areas.
Zelenskyi also spoke in a video shared on social networks of signs of torture on bodies found in Izyum.
"The whole world needs to see that," said the Ukrainian head of state.
Authorities begin exhuming the bodies
Allegedly, not all victims were buried individually, as reported by the Guardian, among others.
Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram that a family of three lay in a grave together in Izyum.
The daughter was born in 2016.
"We have testimonies from local people that they all died in an airstrike," writes Lubinez.
There are “many, many similar cases”.
According to Ukraine, a grave has also been found with at least 17 Ukrainian soldiers who were shot at close range with their hands tied.
Lubinez spoke of genocide in this context.
The AP news agency, citing Kharkiv regional administrator Oleg Synegubov, reports that many of the graves were not inscribed.
At least one corpse had a rope around its neck.
Ukrainian authorities began exhuming the bodies on Friday.
The graves were dug during the battles over Russia's capture of Izyum in March and during the Russian occupation, said Oleg Kotenko, Ukraine's government commissioner for missing people.
Selenskyj speaks of more graves and Russian war crimes
According to Zelenskyj, several places where entire families were buried were found in the recaptured areas.
There is evidence of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers.
For months, Russian forces have been accused of committing numerous atrocities against civilians in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The UN announced that it would send a team to Izyum to investigate the Ukrainian allegations.
The US government has described the body finds at Izyum as "disgusting."
"Unfortunately, it fits the kind of depravity and brutality with which the Russian armed forces are waging this war against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," said National Security Council communications director John Kirby.
"It's absolutely depraved and brutal."
According to the Chief of Police of Ukraine Igor Klimenko, ten torture chambers were also found in the Kharkiv region.
"We see here a huge number of crimes committed against the civilian population," said police chief Ihor Klymenko, according to a statement.
In the town of Balaklija, up to 40 people were detained, humiliated and tortured in the local police station during the Russian occupation.
"We saw traces of bare electric wires on people's hands through which electricity was passed during interrogations," Klimenko said.
Hammers and nooses were also found.
According to him, there were six other places of torture in Izyum, but they were completely destroyed.
svs/Reuters/dpa/AFP/AP
