Digging in the rain, workers hauled body after body out of the sandy soil in a pine forest. More than 400 graves have been found at the site in Izium. — The Associated Press
IZIUM, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Friday that bodies unearthed at a new mass burial site in Ukraine included people who were tortured, some with broken limbs and ropes around their necks.
Ukrainian forces got access to the site after recapturing the northeastern city and much of the wider Kharkiv region in a counteroffensive that suddenly shifted the momentum in the nearly seven-month war. The majority of the people buried were believed to be civilians, according to Ukrainian officials. But there was at least one mass grave, with a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.
— Ukraine’s counteroffensive gained more ground, and Ukrainian authorities claimed nearly all of the Kharkiv region is now in their control. 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.Sergei Bolvinov, a senior investigator for Ukrainian police, told British TV broadcaster Sky News that some of the people buried were shot, while others died from artillery fire, mines or airstrikes.
The work to determine what caused their deaths “is not a one-week job. These bodies have been buried there since March,” he said.
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