IZYUM, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian authorities have identified a mass grave site near a recaptured northeastern city previously held by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Thursday night.
The tomb was discovered near Izium in the Kharkiv region.
“The necessary procedures have already started there.  More information – clear, verifiable information – should be available tomorrow,” Zelensky said in his nightly televised address.
Associated Press reporters saw the site Thursday in a forest outside Izium.  Among the trees were hundreds of graves with simple wooden crosses, most marked only with numbers.  A larger grave bore a sign saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.
Investigators with metal detectors were scanning the area for any hidden explosives.
Oleg Kotenko, an official in the Ukrainian ministry tasked with the reintegration of occupied territories, said videos posted by Russian soldiers on social media indicated there were likely more than 17 bodies in the grave.
“We haven’t counted them yet, but I think it’s over 25 or even 30,” he said.
Izium resident Sergei Gorodko said that among the hundreds buried in individual graves were dozens of adults and children killed in a Russian airstrike on an apartment building.
He said he pulled some of them from the rubble “with my own hands.”
Zelensky cited the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass graves of civilians and evidence of possible war crimes.
« Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium.  … Russia leaves death everywhere.  And he must be held accountable for it.  The world must hold Russia to real responsibility for this war,” he said in the speech.
Sergei Bolvinov, a senior Ukrainian police investigator in the eastern Kharkiv region, told British broadcaster Sky News that a pit containing more than 440 bodies was discovered near Izium after Kiev forces invaded.  He described the tomb as “one of the largest burial sites in any liberated city”.
Some of those buried in the pit were shot.  Others died from artillery fire, mines or airstrikes.  Many of the bodies have yet to be identified, Bolvinov said.
Russian forces abandoned Izium and other parts of the Kharkiv region last week amid a stunning Ukrainian counter-offensive.  On Wednesday, Zelenskyy made a rare trip outside the capital to watch the raising of the national flag over Izium’s town hall.
Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said Thursday night that other evidence found after Kiev’s sweeping advance in the Kharkiv region included several “torture chambers” where both Ukrainian citizens and foreigners were held “in completely inhumane conditions.”
“We have already encountered exhumation of individual bodies, not only with traces of violent death, but also of torture – cut off ears, etc. This is only the beginning,” Enin said in an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV.
He claimed that among those detained at one of the points were students from an unspecified Asian country who were detained at a Russian checkpoint as they tried to leave for territory controlled by Ukraine.
Enin did not specify where the students were being held, although he named the small towns of Balakliya and Volchansk as two locations where torture chambers were found.  His account could not be independently verified.
“All these traces of war crimes are now carefully documented by us.  And we know from Bucha’s experience that the worst crimes can only be revealed over time,” Enin said, referring to a Kiev suburb where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered after the Russian army withdrew from the area in March.
Earlier Thursday, Zelensky said that during the five months the Russians occupied the region, they “only destroyed, only deprived, only removed.”
“They left behind destroyed villages.  in some of them there is not a single intact house.  The occupiers turned schools into garbage dumps and churches – they were torn down, literally turned into toilets.’
In other developments Thursday, Zelensky worked to add political momentum to Ukraine’s recent military gains, while rocket attacks that caused flooding near his city demonstrated Moscow’s determination to reclaim battlefield advantage.
A week after the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Zelensky met with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen during her third wartime visit to Kyiv.  Von der Leyen publicly conveyed wholehearted support for the 27-nation bloc and wore a uniform in Ukraine’s national colors.
“It is absolutely vital and necessary to support Ukraine with the military equipment they need to defend themselves.  And they’ve proven they can do that if they’re well equipped,” he said.
Air raid sirens sounded twice in Kyiv during von der Leyen’s meeting with Zelensky, a reminder that Russia has long-range weapons that can reach any location in Ukraine, even though the capital has been spared attacks in last weeks.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles late Wednesday hit a reservoir dam near Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown and the largest city in central Ukraine.  The strikes flooded over 100 homes.
Russian military bloggers said the attack was intended to flood areas downstream where Ukrainian forces had invaded as part of their counteroffensive.
The head of the local government on Thursday reported a new attack on the dam and said emergency crews were working to prevent more water from leaking out.
The first attack so close to his roots angered Zelensky, who said the strikes had no military value.
“In fact, hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens is another reason why Russia will lose,” he said.
Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Joanna Koslowska in London contributed to the report.