IZYUM, Ukraine — Western leaders voiced revulsion and outrage
Thursday after
Ukraine found a mass grave outside the formerly Russian-occupied
city of Izyum and said that almost all the exhumed bodies showed signs of
torture.
اضافة اعلان
Officials
counted 450 hastily dug graves, some marked by rough wooden crosses at the site
in a pine forest only recently recaptured by Ukrainian fighters.
“Among the
bodies that were exhumed today, 99 percent showed signs of violent death,”
Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on social media.
“There are
several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is
buried with a rope around his neck,” he added.
“Russia leaves
only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers,” said Ukraine’s President
. Some of the remains exhumed included children and people
who were likely tortured before dying, he added.
The
EU is
“deeply shocked” at the newest discovery of a mass grave left by the Russians
in the nearly seven-month-old war, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell.
“This inhuman
behaviour by the Russian forces, in total disregard of international
humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions, must stop immediately,” he said in
a statement.
US Secretary of
State
Antony Blinken said that the graves likely provided more evidence that
Russia is committing war crimes in its pro-Western neighbor, and French
President Emmanuel Macron said what happened in Izyum were atrocities.
“I condemn in
the strongest terms the atrocities committed in Izyum, Ukraine, under Russian
occupation,” Macron tweeted.
Those
responsible “will have to answer for their acts. There is no peace without
justice,” he added.
Putin sticks to his guns
The discovery added to the pressure on Russian President Vladimir
Putin, after his forces were driven into retreat in Kharkiv and are under heavy
pressure from Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and Kherson.
Putin, at a
regional summit in Uzbekistan, was told by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
that now was “not a time for war”.
The discovery
also came a day after Putin admitted that China, whose leader Xi Jinping was
also attending the summit, had expressed “concerns” about the situation in
Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded on February 24.
“I think what
you’re hearing from China, from India, is reflective of concerns around the
world about the effects of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine,” Blinken said in
Washington.
But Putin
remained steadfast, despite strong evidence that his forces incurred heavy
losses in the Ukraine counteroffensive this month, and as Washington announced
another $600 million in arms and ammunition for Kyiv.
“The plan is not
subject to adjustment,” Putin said. “Our offensive operations in Donbas itself
do not stop. They are going at a slow pace ... the Russian army is occupying
newer and newer territories.”
Putin said the
main goal of the campaign was “the liberation of the entire territory of
Donbas.”
He accused
Ukrainian forces of attempts to carry out “terrorist acts” and damage Russian
civilian infrastructure.
“We are really
quite restrained in our response to this, for the time being,” Putin said. “If
the situation continues to develop in this way, the response will be more
serious.”
UN speech
As the investigation into the Izyum mass grave opened, the UN voted to
allow Zelensky to address next week’s General Assembly by video.
Of the 193
member states, 101 voted in favor of allowing Zelensky to “present a
pre-recorded statement” instead of in-person as usually required.
Seven members
voted against the proposal, including Russia, and 19 abstained.
“We deeply
regret that Russia’s war does not allow our president to participate in
person,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya.
Zelensky’s
address is slated for the afternoon of September 21, but changes are likely due
to many leaders heading to London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on
Monday.
Graves without names
The exhumations at the forest grave near Izyum were just a part of the
horrific revelations of the impact of the war and Russia’s occupation of the
area between March and early September.
“This is part,
horrifically ... of an ongoing story whenever we see the Russian tide recede
from the parts of Ukraine that it has occupied,” said Blinken.
Ukraine national
police chief
Igor Klymenko said they had found multiple torture rooms in the
town of Balakliya and elsewhere in Karkhiv since the Russians were driven out.
The UN in Geneva
said it hopes to send a team to determine the circumstances of the deaths.
At the Izyum
site two men in white overalls were digging the sandy soil.
Soon they
reached the first body, exhumed it and placed it in a white plastic body bag.
As more bodies appeared, the strong smell of rotting flesh spread among the
trees and rough wooden crosses.
Where
identification was possible, names were attached to the crosses.
At one spot, a
family with a young child was buried, said Oleg Kotenko, the government
official in charge of the search for missing persons nationwide.
“They were
killed. There are witnesses from the same building. They saw what happened and
buried these people here,” he said.
“The graves without
names are for those found dead in the street,” he said.
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