Mass graves in Ukraine: “99% of exhumed bodies showed signs of violent death”, announces a regional governor
“99%” bodies exhumed this Friday in Izioum, a town in eastern Ukraine recently retaken from the Russians, “showed signs of violent death”said in the evening the regional governor, Oleh Synehoubov.
“There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is buried with a rope around their neck. Obviously, these people were tortured and executed”said Mr. Synehoubov on Telegram, accompanying his message with photos of the hundreds of graves found near Izium.
At Izioum, “There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and one person is buried with a rope around their neck. Obviously, these people were tortured and executed”, said Mr. Synegoubov on Telegram, accompanying his message with photos of the hundreds of graves found near Izium. According to him, “450 bodies of civilians bearing traces of violent death and torture were buried” on this site discovered by the Ukrainian authorities.
On Telegram, Oleg Synegoubov claimed that“there were also children” among the bodies exhumed during the day by the “200 agents and experts” who work on the site. “The bodies will be sent for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death”, he said. And to add: “Every death will be investigated and become evidence of Russia’s war crimes in international courts”. “The scale of the crimes committed (by the Russians) in Izium is enormous”he supported, denouncing “a bloody and brutal terror”.
Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Loubinets, for his part, indicated on Telegram that“there (were) probably more than 1,000 tortured and killed Ukrainian citizens in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region”.
Earlier in the day, an AFP journalist had been able to see at least one body with its hands tied with a rope on the same site, without being able to immediately establish whether it was a civilian or a soldier, the body being too damaged.