Digging up the disappeared
The speed with which the Russians ran away belied the violence and determination with which they originally assaulted the historic Ukrainian town of Izyum.
As Ukrainian troops threatened to surround them a week ago, the Russians jumped into cars and even on to bicycles to flee down the one road that remained open to them.
An embedded Russian military blogger named Semyon Pegov, whose YouTube handle is ‘‘War Gonzo’’, filmed himself panicking by a car with a flat tyre. ‘‘We need to get out of here as soon as possible,’’ he said to the camera.
Six months earlier, it had been a different story. Every building in the centre of Izyum – the town hall, the school, the supermarket, the golden dome of the Church of the Ascension – was smashed or burnt to the ground by the Russian air force and artillery as Moscow’s troops advanced.
The consequences are plain to see now, after the recapture.
In the woods les than 2km from Izyum, the Ukrainians are excavating the mass burial site the Russians dug for the victims of their assault – hundreds of bodies buried with simple wooden crosses amid the trees.
The bodies bear the signs of shellfire, mine explosions and bullet holes. Most are civilians, though scores of Ukrainian soldiers are among the dead.
Most are believed to be victims of air and artillery strikes during the original invasion, although some bodies are fresher, and some had hands
tied behind their backs, seeming to confirm claims by locals that residents were taken away and killed.
Dmytro Lubinets, an MP and human rights commissioner for the Ukrainian parliament, said an original estimate of 1000 killed in Izyum from the Russian assault and occupation, given by the town’s mayor, was probably an underestimate.
‘‘We can’t say an exact number as it’s still under investigation,’’ he said in the ruined central square, while visiting the scene. ‘‘But we can see there are a lot of people missing.’’
The authorities believe that
the mass burial site contains more than 450 bodies.
‘‘All the bodies will be exhumed and sent for forensic examination,’’ Andriy Yermak, a presidential adviser, said.
Ukrainian authorities said they had discovered a cellar that had been used to detain and interrogate prisoners, one of 10 ‘‘torture chambers’’ in the newly liberated territories, including two in the town of Balakliya.
Some people were definitely ‘‘disappeared’’, said Izyum resident Yula, 35, who asked not to give her full name.
She said two neighbours went missing in July. The husband’s body was found floating in the
river some days later; the wife has not been seen since.
In peacetime, the town had a population of 50,000 people. Russian tanks and armoured vehicles now sit by the roadsides, some with turrets blown off. Ukrainian soldiers are still coming across strongholds full of unused armour.
Yula, who speaks Russian, said the occupiers she spoke with hardly knew why they were there. Some had thought they were being driven to their factory when they ended up in Izyum and were given guns, she said.
‘‘I never believed it would happen. On February 24, I just went to work as normal,’’ she said, pointing at the destruction around her.
‘‘It’s all so tragic.’’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive, and has warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
Speaking yesterday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan, Putin said the ‘‘liberation’’ of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal, and he saw no need to revise it.
In his first comment on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin said: ‘‘Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.’’
He alleged that Ukraine had attempted to launch attacks ‘‘near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants’’, adding that ‘‘we will retaliate if they fail to understand that such methods are unacceptable’’.
Putin also sought to assuage India’s concern about the conflict in Ukraine, telling
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Moscow wanted to see a quick end to the fighting, and alleging that Ukrainian officials would not negotiate.
Earlier, in a stunning public rebuke, Modi told Putin: ‘‘Today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this.’’
China and India have refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, while increasing their purchases of Russian oil and gas.