The corpses of Moscow’s Z-symbol tanks are dotted along the cratered streets. Dozens of bombed-out apartment buildings in the city center lie abandoned along streets covered in the debris of one of the fiercest battles of this war, which has killed at least 1,000 people, according to Ukrainian officials. On Wednesday, the city, described as a second Mariupol because of the heavy shelling it has suffered, was visited by the outside world for the first time since it was recaptured. “It’s impossible to explain what we went through if you haven’t experienced it,” says Olga, 44. “We lay on the floor and stayed inside our house, so long that we learned to recognize the bombs. If the Russian plane we heard outside wasn’t so loud, then we knew it would drop two bombs. If, on the other hand, the plane was too strong, six would fall. We counted every explosion before we could breathe a sigh of relief.” . Outside the city administration building, still warm from the shelling, there were fresh shell casings. Bomb-ravaged bodies have begun to be pulled from the rubble, some apparently buried alive. Seen for centuries as a gateway to eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and, from there, the Black Sea, today Izium is a giant crime scene where Ukrainian prosecutors are moving quickly to gather evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by Russians in the cities released from Kyiv. “After the counterattack, we found some burial sites of local residents [across the Kharkiv region] who were murdered by the Russian army,” says Oleksandr Filchakov, Kharkiv District Prosecutor General. “Some of them were even tortured. As for Izium, well, we just started…” Apartment blocks in Izium were bombed. Photo: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian According to reports from residents and some police officers, at least 50 people were killed when Russia dropped a series of heavy bombs on a residential building near the main bridge. The block of flats was split in two, with pieces removed from the edge, with something similar to the bombs used when the Russians tried to take Borodianka in the Kiev region – a Soviet-era Fab-250 bomb designed to hit military targets, such as enemy strongholds and warehouses. However, there were no such structures in this quiet town, which before the war had a population of 46,000. Today there are a few thousand of them left. Locals say the only way out was to Russia and many refused to go. On April 1, Izium fell to Russian forces and Moscow turned it into the main launch pad for the Russian offensive against the remaining Ukrainian troops in the Ukrainian-controlled Donbass. Local authorities were able to evacuate some of the population, but officials said about 10,000 civilians remained trapped. A family cooking outside the basement of their home in Izium. Photo: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian “After the Russians came in, the shelling was still continuous: they put their tanks around the center and they were shooting,” said Vitaly Ivanovich, a 64-year-old former radio electronics engineer who looked worn and dressed. in dusty brown clothes. “They wouldn’t let you go unless you wanted to go to Russia.” Ivanovic said cellphone signals and electricity were cut during the bombing in early March. He said electricity was restored a month ago, but not in all districts of the city, meaning some people lived without power for the entire period. As most people in the city rely on electric pumps for their water supply, the lack of electricity also meant there was no water. Residents were rarely able to wash themselves or their clothes. Citizens of Izium during the distribution of food by the International Red Cross. Photo: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian But because of his background in radio, unlike many residents, Ivanovic had access to outside information. “I had a radio which I charged using a solar battery to catch Ukrainian stations.” Residents interviewed by the Guardian were overwhelmingly happy that the Ukrainian army had recaptured the city from the Russians and expressed hatred for the occupation forces. They were visibly traumatized by the bombings and destruction. A woman posing with her friends with small Ukrainian flags outside the administration building says the Russians came asking for their passport numbers and telling them they would soon be issued Russian passports. “I just said ‘no’ … and they just left,” the woman said. “They said it was the Ukrainian army that had bombed us, but we didn’t believe it, we could tell where it was coming from.” Those we spoke to said Russian soldiers mostly kept to themselves and had no direct knowledge of Russians beating or torturing civilians, as has been reported in nearby Balaklia. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. However, residents the Guardian spoke to confirmed that when the Russians arrived in their town they already had lists of locals who were in the army, military families or people who were veterans of the Donbas war, which began in 2014. “They knew exactly where to look, which address,” the woman said. According to their accounts, the Russians had allegedly kidnapped these men and taken them to unknown locations. Their fate, to this day, remains a mystery. “They disappeared,” says Edward, 30. “A friend of mine rebelled against the Russian soldiers who had stolen his car. They killed him in cold blood, along with his dog.” Natasha, a middle-aged shop worker whose shop has been damaged by bombs, said: “Everything that was bombed was done by the Russians … it happened in the first weeks of the war.” Svitlana, a woman in her 40s who was cooking food on a stove outside her home, said she and her neighbors had been without gas since February. Svitlana said she couldn’t say she was happy to see the Ukrainian army. “We don’t know who shot us,” said Svitlana, who said she has been without access to the Internet and the news since the war began. “We will be happy when we have electricity and water. What is going to happen in the winter, none of us have windows… we are also afraid that the bombing will start again.” Residents are scrambling to get back to life, hoping the battle that forced them into hiding for months, killed their friends and destroyed their homes is truly over, even as explosions echo through the streets from the southeast front, just eight kilometers away. (five miles) away. Today, the Russians have retreated to the east bank of the Oskil River, about 10 miles from Izium, whose recapture by Kyiv marked one of the most strategic innovations for Ukraine since the start of the war. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a surprise visit to Izium and said he was “very shocked” but not surprised by the extent of the damage to the city. He thanked the paratroopers who took part in the liberation of Izium and watched as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of its ruined administrative building. A few days before the Ukrainians arrived, Natasha said the Russians had ordered a 10-day lockdown. Then on Saturday morning at 2am they heard trucks leaving. “They wouldn’t let us go anywhere, they turned off the electricity, there was no water,” Natasha said. “The next day [Saturday morning]I looked out and could see they were no longer standing at our checkpoint. “We went outside, he wasn’t there,” he added. “Later our children arrived.” Additional reporting by Artem Mazhulin.
