In an unusual special video, Zelenskyy said hundreds of people were found “tortured, shot, killed by shelling” at the site in Izium. He reported evidence of atrocities, including a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms. In the video, Zelenskyy says more than 400 graves have been found at the site, but the number of victims is not yet known. Zelensky, who visited the Izium region on Wednesday, said the discoveries again showed the need for world leaders to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. THIS IS AN UPDATE UPDATE. Previous AP story follows below. IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities recovered bodies, some of which they said bore signs of torture, from a mass burial site Friday in an area recently retaken by Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited the site as an example of “what Russian occupation has led to.” Digging in the rain, workers pulled bodies out of sandy soil in a pine forest near Izium that police said contained 445 graves. Protected by bodysuits and rubber gloves, they gently felt the remains of their decaying clothing, seemingly searching for things that might identify them. Ukrainian forces gained access to the site after recapturing the northeastern city and much of the greater Kharkiv region in a counter-offensive that suddenly turned the tide in the nearly seven-month war. Some of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and ropes around their necks, the district’s chief prosecutor, Oleksandr Filchakov, said. Ukrainian officials said they also found evidence of torture in other parts of the region. Associated Press reporters who visited the site saw graves among the pines, marked with simple wooden crosses. Most were numbered – and the count reached 400. It was unclear who was buried under many of the mounds or how they all died. Witnesses and a Ukrainian researcher said some were shot and others killed by artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. The UN human rights office said it would investigate the deaths. The majority of the people buried are believed to be civilians, according to Ukrainian officials. However, there was at least one mass grave, with a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. In his late-night televised address Thursday, Zelensky spoke about the location, citing the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass graves of civilians. “Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium,” he said. “Russia leaves death everywhere. And he must be held accountable for that.” “We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to,” he said. Elsewhere in Ukraine, the war continued to claim lives and cause destruction. — Ukraine’s presidential office said Russian shelling killed five civilians and wounded 18 others over a 24-hour period. Shelling was also reported, with Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih among the targets for the third day in a row on Friday. Air raid sirens also screamed in the capital, Kyiv. — Ukraine’s counteroffensive gained more ground and Ukrainian authorities claimed that almost all of the Kharkiv region is now under their control. — More killings targeting pro-Russian separatist officials were reported in areas under their control. Separatist authorities said an explosion killed the prosecutor general of the self-proclaimed republic in the Luhansk region. Moscow-backed authorities said two Russian-settled officials were also killed in Berdyansk, a town in the Zaporizhia region it held earlier in the war. — To bolster the Ukrainian offensive, the Biden administration announced another $600 million military aid package. At the Izium burial site, the marking of individual graves with wooden crosses differed from some other sites discovered earlier in the war seen by AP reporters — including some around Kyiv that are being investigated as potential war crimes sites. Bodies found outside the capital in the city of Bukha and elsewhere after the withdrawal of Russian forces were thrown together and buried without markers. 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.” Sergei Bolvinov, a senior Ukrainian police investigator, told British broadcaster Sky News that some of those buried were shot, while others died from artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. The mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers could contain more than the 17 bodies listed on its marker, said Oleg Kotenko, an official at the Ukrainian ministry charged with the reintegration of occupied territories. “We haven’t counted them yet, but I think it’s more than 25 or even 30,” he said, basing his estimate on videos of the site posted by Russian soldiers on social media. Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said some 445 graves had so far been found at the site and that the “majority” were believed to be civilians. The task of determining what caused their deaths “is not a week’s work. These bodies have been buried there since March,” he said. Before excavation work began, investigators with metal detectors scanned the site for any hidden explosives. Soldiers stuck red and white plastic tape between the trees to mark parts of the site. Some graves had wreaths of flowers hanging from the crosses, and some were named after people. Izium was a key supply hub for Russian forces until they withdrew in recent days. Izium city councilor Maksym Strelnikov told reporters in an online briefing from an undisclosed location this week that hundreds of people had died during the fighting and after Russia took over the city in March. Many were unable to get a proper burial, he said. His claims could not be immediately verified, but similar scenes have taken place in other cities captured by Russian forces, including Mariupol. Strelnikov said an untold number of people also died from a lack of proper health care, as “the city’s medical infrastructure was destroyed.” Most of the city’s pre-war population of 47,000 fled to Ukrainian-held lands. Strelnikov said 10,000 residents remain in the ruined city – bracing for more hardship with the coming winter and most infrastructure destroyed. National police chief Klimenko said “torture chambers” have also been found in recaptured towns and villages in the Kharkiv region. The claim could not be independently verified. Seven Sri Lankan students who fell into Russian hands in Kupyansk, also in the Kharkiv region, also said they were detained and mistreated, he said. “They’re afraid, they’ve been abused,” he said. They include “a woman who can barely speak” and two with torn fingernails. Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said the bodies exhumed in the area also showed “traces of violent death, but also of torture — cut off ears, etc. This is just the beginning.” “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 in an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV. ——— This story has been updated to correct that seven, not six, Sri Lankan students said they fell into Russian hands. ——— Associated Press reporters Hanna Arhirova and Jon Gambrell in Kyiv and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed reporting. ——— Follow AP’s war coverage at
