Many of the victims are civilians, with some feared to have been tortured while suffering a violent death, authorities said on Monday. The mass grave containing 440 graves was found after the city was liberated from Russian control by Ukrainian forces. Ukraine latest: Zelensky says there will be ‘no respite’ in resistance after quick gains in Kharkiv The city was recaptured after a counterattack in the Kharkiv area. Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said two children were among the bodies in Izyum. “Some of the dead have signs of violent death,” he said. “There are corpses with bound hands and traces of torture.” “The deceased was also found to be carrying explosives, shrapnel and stab wounds,” he added. Medical examiners, wearing white protective suits and rubber gloves, spent days painstakingly exhuming and identifying the bodies buried in makeshift graves marked with flimsy wooden crosses. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was photographed in the newly recaptured city raising his country’s blue-and-yellow flag in a show of triumph last Wednesday. After the burial site was discovered, Mr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, called Russia a “killing country” and a “state sponsor of terrorism”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Ukraine’s claims as “lies.” In his late-night address to the nation last Thursday, Mr Zelenskyy said: “We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to. “Bucha, Mariupol and now, unfortunately, Izyum. Image: Medical examiners carry the body of a man who Ukrainian police say was killed during the Russian invasion near the village of Vorzel in Bucha Image: A Ukrainian soldier walks among damaged Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev in April. Photo: AP “Russia is letting death go everywhere. And it needs to be held accountable for that. The world needs to hold Russia to account for this war.” US President Joe Biden has previously called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the killings of civilians in Bukha, outside the capital Kyiv. Some were shot in the head with their hands tied behind their backs, according to Ukrainian officials. But Moscow has categorically denied responsibility for the massacre. Meanwhile, pictures from Mariupol have revealed how the besieged city was left “completely destroyed” after weeks of relentless shelling at the hands of Kremlin troops. Dozens of people sheltering in a theater have died in the wake of a Russian airstrike – despite the building emblazoned with the word “children” in a bid to prevent an airstrike.
