The recently liberated town of Izium in the Kharkiv Region has completed the exhumation of bodies from the graves discovered after the retreat of Russian troops. As the head of the Kharkiv Region Military Administration Oleh Synyehubov informs, as many as 436 bodies have been retrieved: most with signs of violent death and 30 with distinct traces of torture.
“Most of the deceased are civilians, and 21 are military. There are bodies with a rope of the neck, with their hands tied, limbs broken, and bullet wounds. Some of the men had their genitals removed,” Synyehubov wrote.
He also underlined that there are more mass graves in Izium. “We have identified at least three more such locations in the area, as well as in other liberated towns near Kharkiv. We are currently examining and demining the sites,” the head of the administration said.
The exhumation effort started on September 16. Bodies are extracted from the graves to investigate the circumstances of these people's deaths. As we learned earlier, a few children's bodies were discovered too. In particular, the forensic team has found the remains of the Stopakov family: the father, the mother, two children, their grandmother, and the mother's younger sister. They all died on March 9, when their house collapsed on the basement where they were hiding from shellfire.
Russian propagandists tried to present the mass grave of Izium residents killed by occupants as the burial of soldiers who had fallen while defending the town in March.