Dhe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has compared the actions of the Russian occupiers in his country to the Nazi atrocities of World War II. There is cruel torture, deportations, burned cities, bottomless hatred and nothing alive anymore under Russian occupation, said Selenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Saturday. Unlike the Nazis, the Russians wouldn’t make soap from the killed Ukrainians – and they wouldn’t make lampshades from their skin. “But the principle is the same,” said the head of state after more than six months of war.
“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. More than ten torture chambers have now been discovered in different cities of the Kharkiv Liberated Oblast, he said. “Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied territory.”
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, Zelenskyy said.
More than 440 graves with corpses have been found in Izyum. According to initial findings, people are said to have died when Russia fired heavily on the city at the end of March.
At the end of March, hundreds of dead civilians – some with signs of torture and their hands tied – were also found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Since then, Bucha has been considered a symbol of the most serious war crimes in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
All developments in the live ticker:
11:38 am – Ukraine: Since the agreement, 165 ships with agricultural products have left the port
According to Ukrainian sources, 165 ships with 3.7 million tons of agricultural products have left the country since the grain agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN in July. Another ten ships with a good 169,000 tons of agricultural products are to depart on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure in Kyiv.
Before the war, Ukraine exported up to six million tons of grain a month. According to the ministry, the Ukrainian Black Sea ports have the capacity to load 100 to 150 cargo ships per month.
10:24 a.m. – Kharkiv region complains about continued shelling after Russian withdrawal
Even after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kharkiv region a week ago, the shelling in the region continues, according to Ukrainian sources. The enemy fired heavily on the liberated cities of Izyum and Chuhuiv, destroying residential and commercial buildings, as well as gas stations and production facilities, Ukrainian regional governor Oleh Sinegubov reported in his blog on the Telegram news service. An eleven-year-old girl was killed in the shelling in Chuhuiv. When driving in the region, two women were fatally injured by a tank shell.
The evening before, Sinegubov also informed that around 60 bodies had been recovered from the mass grave site in a forest near the city of Izyum. Most women and men were therefore civilians. Many Ukrainian soldiers were among the dead. Most died violent deaths, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some of the dead also showed signs of torture. The exhumation of the dead should continue on Sunday. The United Nations also want to visit the site to help determine the exact causes of death.
08:33 – Ukraine reports dead and damage in Russian attacks
According to Ukrainian information, Russian attacks in the east and south of the country have killed several people and damaged buildings and utilities. The governor of the eastern Ukrainian region announced on Sunday that five civilians had been killed in Donetsk over the past day. In Nikopol in the south of the country, according to the regional authorities, gas and power lines and several dozen houses, including multi-storey buildings, were damaged.
08:17 – Great Britain – Russian attacks are intended to demoralize
According to British intelligence services, Russia has significantly increased its attacks on civilian Ukrainian targets with long-range missiles in the past seven days. This includes, for example, the attack on a dam in the central Ukrainian industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, according to the daily short report by the British Ministry of Defense on Sunday. These goals offer no immediate military gain.
It is likely that given the setbacks on the front line, Moscow will continue to use such attacks to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and their government.
The British Ministry of Defense has published daily information on the course of the war since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February, citing intelligence information. In doing so, the British government wants to both counter the Russian portrayal and keep allies in line. Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign.
6:00 am – “Don’t do that” – Biden warns Putin against using nuclear weapons
US President Joe Biden has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against using tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of the backlash 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 clip with CBS television released Saturday night.
Russia would thus make itself even more of an outsider than ever before, according to Biden.
The Russian President had said Moscow would change tack if its troops were further pressured. In a speech on the February invasion of Ukraine, Putin hinted that he could use nuclear weapons if the West intervened in what the Russians officially call the war in Ukraine, “special military operations.”
As a result of current developments in Ukraine, nationalists in Russia are pressuring Putin to take the initiative again.
4:18 a.m. – EPP boss Weber calls for tougher action against Russia
The chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, calls for tougher action against Russia after the discovery of more mass graves in Ukraine. “Russia is moving away more and more from the value-based world community,” said the deputy CSU chairman to the newspapers of the Funke media group, according to the preliminary report. “We must now resolutely implement the sanctions. In addition, battle tanks would finally have to be delivered, preferably in a European network,” says Weber. In the preliminary report, Weber also makes it clear that he sees the prosecution of the atrocities in Ukraine as a European task.
01:53 – Secretary of Defense stands behind Inspector General
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, SPD, backs the statements made by Inspector General Eberhard Zorn, who considers an expansion of Russian aggression possible and cautious about the chances of success for the Ukrainian counterattack. “I agree that Putin is unpredictable. Putin attacked a neighbor and questioned the territorial integrity of other states,” said Lambrecht in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group, according to the preliminary report. After the discovery of further graves in Ukraine, Lambrecht also called in the interview for the United Nations to deal with the war crimes legally. “You should be granted access as soon as possible to secure evidence. Those responsible for war crimes must be brought to justice,” Lambrecht told the Funke media group.
1:03 a.m. – Lambrecht demands clarification of possible war crimes
After hundreds of bodies were found in the Ukrainian city of Izyum, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht called for investigations into possible war crimes. “These terrible crimes must be cleared up – ideally by the United Nations,” said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The UN should be given access as soon as possible so that evidence could be secured. “Those responsible for war crimes must be brought to justice,” Lambrecht demanded.
12:34 a.m. – Söder and Weil want a rescue package for public utilities
The Prime Ministers of Bavaria and Lower Saxony, Markus Söder, CSU, and Stephan Weil, SPD, propose a rescue package for the municipal utilities threatened by the energy crisis. “They have to pay more and more for the procurement of energy, but can only pass on these prices with a delay and have to fear payment defaults. The federal government’s protective shield for large companies must also be extended to public utilities,” said Weil, according to a previously published report by “Bild am Sonntag”.