At least some of the disturbing footage was taken in a dank basement that doubles as a makeshift prison for Russian forces behind a supermarket in the recently liberated village of Kozach Lopan in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Ukrainian authorities said. Dirty bed linens can be seen scattered on the wet concrete floor between broken pieces of styrofoam in some of the rooms with bars across from them. There are also two black buckets in one corner that were apparently used as toilets, while cigarette butts and empty pumpkin seed shells are littered on the floor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late-night speech on Saturday that “more than 10 torture chambers have already been found in the liberated areas of the Kharkiv region, in various cities and towns.” He also said that “a torture room and tools for electric torture were found” at a train station in Kozach Lopan. The alleged discoveries come as the head of the European Union called for a war crimes investigation into the newly discovered mass grave that included the bodies of women and children in the liberated Ukrainian town of Izyum. Ukrainian authorities said there was evidence that many of the victims had been tortured before they died. “In the first grave, there is a citizen who has a rope around her neck. So we see the traces of torture,” Kharkiv District Prosecutor Olexander Ilyenkov told the BBC. A satellite view of the cemetery entrance and forest in Izyum, Ukraine. Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Tec/AFP via Getty Images Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, tweeted that the hundreds of bodies just found in Izyum could represent “unthinkable and despicable” war crimes. “We support the punishment of all war criminals,” Lipavsky wrote. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. “We must not overlook it,” he said. “I call for the speedy establishment of a special international court to prosecute the crime of aggression.” Ukrainian authorities said there was evidence that many of the victims had been tortured before they died. AFP via Getty Images Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Service exhume a mass grave site.REUTERS So far, 59 bodies have been exhumed from graves in a forest on the outskirts of the city, which was occupied by Russian troops until a recent counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces retook the city on the besieged eastern edge of the country. Izyum is about 100 miles from Kozach Lopan. Zelensky said Russia should be held accountable for its atrocities “both on the battlefield and in courtrooms.” Ukraine has been wracked by war since Russian strongman Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of the Eastern European nation in February. The Russian military has suffered major setbacks in recent weeks, with Ukrainian forces forcing Putin’s army to retreat from some occupied territories — though Russia has vowed to retake much of the lost territory. Allegations of atrocities by the occupying Russian forces have shocked the world. In July, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague called for a “general strategy” to deal with suspected war crimes in Ukraine. With the AP
