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The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Russia of “torture” and reclassified the country as “terrorist”, after the Ukrainian authorities found more than 400 graves in Izium, one of the recovered cities in the Kharkiv region. . Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry released the cities that were targeted by its troops in the latest bombing raids on Ukraine.
At least 450 mass graves were found by the Ukrainian authorities in the city of Izium, in the northeast of the country. According to Police Director Ihor Klymenko, most of the people buried there are civilians.
With the news, the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, compared the situation with what happened in April in Bucha, when the authorities announced to the international press the discovery of a mass grave, northwest of kyiv, and in where hundreds of corpses were identified with signs of torture and apparently executed.
“There are clear signs of torture, humiliation and humiliation of the population. In addition, there are indications that Russian soldiers who were in the vicinity of that place simply fired on those graves for fun,” Zelensky said.
The president also claimed that the graves contained the bodies of hundreds of civilians and soldiers and claimed that some had been tortured, shot or killed by artillery shelling.He cited evidence of atrocities, such as a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms.
Russia is a terrorist country. I don’t know why the world is slow to recognize it. We liberated Izium. Over 400 graves were found in the forest next to it. How many tortured Ukrainians are there is unknown. How many more of our people must die so that all finally figured it out? pic.twitter.com/0nqqaPPsLK
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 16, 2022
Under the protection of a United Nations commission on international investigators, Ukraine has accused Russia of war crimes, an accusation for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has promised to resolve from the tribunal in The Hague.
Ukrainian troops also reported this Friday that they had discovered ten torture chambers distributed over the territory of Kharkiv, six of them in Izium, another two in the city of Balaklia, one in the town of Hrakovo, in the Chuhuiv district, and one in the city of Vovchansk.
In the city where the most torture chambers were found, Izium, the authorities claimed to have located them at the local police headquarters, the security service building, the prosecutor’s office, the administrative service delivery center and the recruitment office. .
Military counteroffensive by both sides
The Russian Ministry of Defense affirmed this Saturday, September 17, that its troops foiled a new counterattack attempt in the Kherson region, in southern Ukraine. According to the cabinet, Russian soldiers also destroyed seven tanks and 13 armored vehicles near the town of Pravdino as part of the Ukrainian attempt to advance on Kherson.
“During the fighting (in the region) in a few hours more than 120 Ukrainian soldiers were killed,” military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
The Donetsk region also remains under attack from Moscow, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting that more than 230 military personnel were killed and four ammunition stores destroyed.
For their part, Western defense officials and analysts believe that Russian forces are establishing a new defensive line in northeastern Ukraine. The British Ministry of Defense told a daily intelligence briefing that the line is likely to be between the Oskil River and Svatove, some 150km southeast of Kharkiv.
Moscow “probably considers it important to maintain control of this area because it is transited by one of the few main resupply routes that Russia still controls, from the Belgorod region of Russia. A stubborn defense of this area was being carried out,” the Army said. British.
This Saturday there were also new attacks in the Zaporizhia region, where, according to the governor, Oleksandr Starukh, Russian troops bombed two villages and destroyed several civilian facilities.
With AP, EFE and Reuters.
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