Ukrainian authorities on Friday discovered hundreds of graves in a forest on the outskirts of Izium, a town recently recaptured from Russian forces in the Kharkiv region. An area where the police say they have discovered ten “torture rooms”.
According to local authorities, a total of 443 graves were discovered on this site, including a grave containing the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. Two men in white outfits were digging the bottom in the sandy soil there on Friday, near a cross with the inscription: “Ukrainian army, 17 people. Izioum, from the morgue”.
According to Oleg Kotenko, government official for the search for missing persons, these graves were dug during the fighting when the city was taken by Russian forces in March and during the Russian occupation, which ended last week. Some graves might contain several bodies.
“People who died of starvation”
“The graves that do not bear names are those of people (found) in the street,” said Mr. Kotenko, according to whom “there are many people who died of hunger”. “This part of the city was isolated, without supplies. People were blocked, nothing worked”.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations immediately indicated that it wanted to send a team to Izioum “soon” to “determine the circumstances of the death of these people”.
“Torture Rooms”
Ukrainian police chief Igor Klymenko told him of the discovery of ten “torture rooms” in localities taken back from the Russians in the Kharkiv region, including six of them in Izium and two in the town of Balakliïa .
According to him, the bodies of nearly 50 civilians were found during this week in the territories of the Kharkiv region abandoned by Russian troops.
Pro-Russian Prosecutor slain
On the front, the fighting and bombardments continued on Friday in all directions.
In the East, the separatist authorities in Lugansk announced the death of a local pro-Russian prosecutor, killed by an explosion in the premises where he worked, the nature of which they did not specify. Pro-Russian authorities have also reported other attacks once morest occupation cadres in southern Ukraine.
In Kryvyï Rig, in the center of the country, AFP journalists heard an explosion, the authorities announcing a new strike once morest hydraulic infrastructures while Russian bombardments have caused flooding there in recent days.
“Position fights”
In the Kharkiv region, 12 people were injured in “massive” Russian shelling in areas recently retaken from the Russians, and four more people in the city of Kharkiv itself, according to regional authorities.
The Ukrainian presidency reported “positional battles” in the Lugansk region, while in the Donetsk region, Russian bombardments, in particular on Bakhmout, left five dead and six injured.
On the southern front, where the Ukrainian forces meet more resistance than in Kharkiv, the “situation remains difficult” but the Ukrainian forces continue to bombard the bridges used by the forces of Moscow, according to the same source.
“New Centers of Power”
After the invasion launched on February 24, the West imposed a series of sanctions once morest Russia while providing arms to kyiv, a crucial support, for which Washington validated on Thursday a new part of up to 600 millions of dollars.
Visiting kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised on Thursday that the EU will stand by Ukraine “as long as it takes”, then pleading on television for a appearance of Russian President Vladimir Putin before international justice.
The latter met Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of a regional summit where he welcomed Friday the “new centers of power” emerging in the world facing the West.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / blg / afp
