Forest of graves
Where Russia left 200 victims of its brutal occupation
STRETCHING back into the trees, ranks of crude wooden crosses mark the last resting place of more than 200 Ukrainians – most of them civilians – slaughtered in Putin’s invasion.
The burials are part of a grave site of around 450 individuals that yesterday officials began exhuming around the newly liberated town of Izyum.
Some of the bodies showed signs of torture, with their hands tied behind their backs and ropes around their necks, it was claimed. Others revealed injuries consistent with rocket or shelling attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of genocide and called for the occupiers to be held to account. He said on social media yesterday: ‘The world must act. Russia must be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism. Russia leaves only death and suffering.’
It follows the successful Ukrainian counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces around Kharkiv in the north-east of the country. Ukrainmay ian police chief Igor Klymenko said most of those in the mass graves were civilians.
‘We have information that there are soldiers there too, we haven’t recovered a single one yet,’ he said. Initial accounts suggested some have also died from a lack of access to healthcare.
Mr Klymenko said his forces had also discovered ‘the presence of at least ten torture centres’ across territories formerly held by Russia in the Kharkiv region. The UN said yesterday that it plans to send a team of investigators to the area.
Russia held the area for more than five months. Izyum was used as a logistics hub by its army.
The Ukrainian military’s recent successes saw its soldiers kick out Russian forces across an area roughly the same size as Crete over the past week.
It has boosted morale and also strengthened Mr Zelensky’s case for the West to send more weapons. To add to Putin’s woes, Russia’s army is falling short of infantry and junior officers, according to the Ministry of Defence in London yesterday.
There was further humiliation after the independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported that he is furious at increasingly heavy drinking by aides since the Ukraine invasion.
Quoting a source close to the president, it said: ‘They hit the bottle [in February]. And some of them don’t want to stop. Some [officials] have missed important events; others have slurred their words and said things that don’t make sense in official settings.’
‘At least ten torture centres’