“Several bodies are tied behind the back, one is buried with a rope around the neck. It is clear that these people were tortured and hanged,” Sinekupov said in a telegram accompanying his message with photos of hundreds of graves found near Isium. .
Following the discovery of the governor’s announcement this Thursday, A A mass grave with about 440 bodies. More details were revealed this Friday, such as its location, in a forest near a town recaptured by Ukrainian troops earlier in the week.
An AFP journalist saw at least one body with his hands tied with rope, but could not confirm whether it was a civilian or a soldier because the body was so badly decomposed.
“The bodies have been sent for post-mortem to ascertain the exact causes of death,” he explained.
Oleg Sinekubov said in Telegram that “there were children” among the bodies exhumed by “200 agents and experts” working on the case.
“Each death will be investigated individually and presented to international courts as evidence of war crimes committed by Russia,” he added. “Intent of the crimes committed [pelos russos] Izyum is huge”, condemning “a bloodthirsty and brutal terror”.
However, the UN human rights commissioner revealed on Friday that he wants to send a team to Izyum to verify the Ukrainian allegations.
“Our colleagues in Ukraine are following up on these allegations and are planning to arrange a visit to Izyum to determine the circumstances of the deaths of these individuals,” he said.
Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Lubinets said in a telegram that “more than 1,000 Ukrainian citizens may have been tortured and murdered in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region.”
A counteroffensive launched by the Ukrainian military in the region in early September allowed Russian troops to recapture the occupied territories.
The Kremlin has previously been accused of war crimes allegedly committed on the outskirts of Kiev in the first weeks of the conflict, but Russian officials have consistently denied the allegations.
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