More graves with bodies of civilians tortured to death are being discovered in de-occupied Izium, e Kharkiv region, while the work has started to search for victims of airstrikes under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
That’s according to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who spoke in an interview with Reuters, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“To date, 450 dead and buried have been found in Izyum. But there are still separate graves where many tortured people are buried – whole families… All this is in Izium, in those pits… Just bodies thrown in there,” the head of the Ukrainian state said, noting that the inquiry is currently underway.
In addition, he said that many had died as a result of Russian airstrikes. According to Zelensky, the search under the rubble of the destroyed buildings. “We will witness mass torture of our people by Russia. And I don’t know how many thousands died there,” said the president of Ukraine.
The leader referred to the actions of the Russian military as terrorism, and appealed to the international community to recognize Russia as a terrorist state or sponsor of terrorism.
“I would very much like the United States to react strongly now as a leader of democracy in the world and as a leader in supporting Ukraine. I would like U.S. Congress to support our proposal to recognize Russia as terrorists. We are not asking to recognize people as terrorists. We are asking to recognize terrorists as terrorists. That’s what they are. They have done this,” Zelensky emphasized.
The head of the Ukrainian state stated that specific war crimes committed by the Russian Federation were recorded in the de-occupied territory of Kharkiv region. In this context, he informed that Ukraine is pursuing investigative action jointly with international experts and prosecutors.
According to Zelensky, no one doubts that Russia is to blame for the crimes committed.
As reported by Ukrinform, on September 6, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 400 bodies, including those with signs of torture, were exhumed at the site of a mass burial in liberated Izium. Among the identified bodies are children and military servicemen.
As of September 16, law enforcers discovered 10 torture chambers in the territories liberated from the Russians in Kharkiv region, six of them in the town of Izium.
source ukrinform