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Forces in Isjum: corpses exhumed
Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / dpa
What has happened in the past few hours
Residents of the Ukrainian city of Izyum continue to search a nearby forest for dead relatives who may be buried there.
Forces are continuing the exhumation of more than 440 bodies found there after Russian forces expelled them.
The causes of death of the discovered bodies have not yet been finally clarified.
Residents say some may have died in an airstrike.
According to Ukrainian authorities, at least one of the bodies has his hands tied and traces of a rope around his neck.
That says Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has compared the actions of the Russian occupiers in his country with the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War II.
There is cruel torture, deportations, burnt cities, bottomless hatred and nothing alive anymore under Russian occupation, said Selenskyj in a video message distributed on Saturday.
It is true that the Russians, unlike the Nazis, would not make soap from the killed Ukrainians, nor lampshades from their skin.
"But the principle is the same," said the head of state.
Zelenskyy called the occupiers who fled the Kharkiv region a week ago "racists" and said that the "Nazis" behaved in the same way.
"Racism" combines the words Russia and fascism and is used by many Ukrainians as a term for "Russian fascism".
Like the "Nazis," the "racists" would be held accountable for their actions on the battlefield and in court, Zelensky said.
"We will determine the identities of everyone who tortured and abused, who brought these atrocities from Russia here to Ukrainian territory," said the 44-year-old.
When they fled, the occupiers left torture devices behind.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities released photos purporting to show torture chambers and equipment.
In the meantime, more than ten torture chambers have been discovered in various cities of the liberated Kharkov region, said Zelenskyy: "Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied region."
According to Zelenskyj, people were tortured with wires and electric shocks.
For example, a torture room with electric torture tools was discovered at a train station in Kosatscha Lopan.
New evidence of torture was also found in the bodies found in a forest near the city of Izyum.
The exhumation of the dead at the "mass grave site" continued on Saturday, Zelensky said.
More than 440 graves are being dug in eastern Ukraine.
SPIEGEL reporter Alexander Sarovic is on site.
In the video he reports on the salvage of the bodies and the first findings of the authorities.
That's what the West says
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht calls for the clarification of possible war crimes.
"These terrible crimes must be cleared up - preferably by the United Nations," said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The UN should get access as soon as possible so that evidence could be secured.
"Those responsible for war crimes must be brought to justice," said Lambrecht.
US President Joe Biden has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against using tactical nuclear or chemical weapons after the setbacks in Ukraine.
"Don't do that, don't do that, don't do that.
It would change the face of war like nothing since World War II," Biden said in an interview with CBS.
Russia would thus make itself even more of an outsider than ever before, according to Biden.
The Russian President had stated that Moscow would change its course if its troops were further pressured.
Moscow says so
Moscow has not yet commented on the graves discovered near Izyum.
However, the Russian government regularly denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians during the war.
The head of the pro-Russian administration, which left the region earlier this month, accused Ukrainians of orchestrating the atrocities in the city of Izyum.
"I haven't heard anything about funerals," Vitaly Gantchev told state television Rossiya-24.
Weapons for Ukraine
The chairman of the NATO military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, sees Western military aid and the warfare of the Ukrainian military as decisive factors for Kiev's recent successes.
"The ammunition, equipment and training that the allies and other nations provide make a real difference on the battlefield," said the Dutchman on Saturday in Estonia's capital Tallinn, where the committee, which includes the chiefs of staff from the 30 member states, met.
The Ukrainian army had recently recaptured territory occupied by Russian forces in a counter-offensive in the east of the country.
According to Bauer, NATO wants to support Ukraine “for as long as it is necessary.
Winter is coming, but support should remain steadfast,” he said.
On Saturday it became known that the federal government of Ukraine approved the purchase of German-made howitzers.
When asked, a government spokesman said: "We can confirm that a permit for the export of 18 RCH-155 howitzers was granted." The "Welt am Sonntag" had previously reported on this, citing documents available to it.
Accordingly, it is about a planned order from Kiev with the armaments group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) worth 216 million euros.
However, the howitzers could be delivered in two and a half years at the earliest.
That's gonna be important
In the liberated eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, Ukrainian investigators want to secure more evidence of war crimes.
In the forest near the city of Izyum, the exhumation of the bodies continues.
The identity of the people and the cause of death are to be clarified.
In addition, the debate continues about deliveries of German battle tanks to Ukraine, for example.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) rejects this.
In his video, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy announced that in addition to investigative work to solve Russian crimes in the Kharkiv region, normal life should return.
People should get food, medicine, electricity and their pensions.
Public transport should also be restored.
Zelenskyy admitted that there are currently no "significant changes in the situation" at the front.
At the same time, however, he emphasized that all occupied territories would be liberated - and that Russia had no chance.
The Cherson, Luhansk, Donetsk areas, including the city of Mariupol there, but also Bedyansk in the Zaporizhia region and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia had annexed in 2014, were to be liberated.
The Ukrainian flag will be flying everywhere again, Zelensky said.
"But we still need time for that." Above all, Ukraine is relying on heavy weapons from the West to force the Russian occupiers out of the country.
ptz/dpa/Reuters