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In the newly liberated parts of Ukraine, horrific tales of mass murder, torture, rape and mutilation by Russian troops are revealed in the chilling echoes of their retreat from Kiev.
At least 1,000 civilians died in the town of Izyum alone, according to multiple Ukrainian officials, while others were left with injuries inflicted by Russian troops who destroyed all hospitals and looted medical supplies.
Those who survived the occupation in places like Balakliya and Kuyansk tell of basement torture chambers, rapes and mutilations carried out by Putin’s men – some indiscriminately, others as they tried to wipe out those loyal to Ukraine.
The names of these cities will now live in disgrace alongside those of Bucha and Irpin – suburbs of Kiev where some of the first evidence of Russia’s bloody campaign of violence against innocent bystanders was first discovered after the retreat in April.
More than 450 people are known to have died near Kiev, meaning the scale of the atrocities in Izyum and throughout Kharkiv took place on a much larger scale.
Maksim Strelnikov, chairman of the city council of Izyum, said: ‘The occupiers here, as in other places, committed war crimes and tried to hide them.
“According to the information we have, at least 1,000 civilians have been killed as a result of military actions.
“Unfortunately, many more people have suffered because they lacked access to timely medical care.”
His words were echoed by presidential adviser Anton Gerashchenko, former presidential spokesman Iuliia Mendel and mayor of Izyum, Valery Marchenko.
During a visit to the region, Mr Gerashchenko added: “Right now, being in Kharkov, I feel joy and anger.
“Glad that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are now free. Anger that so many lives have been destroyed, so many people have been murdered, tortured, raped.
“That infrastructure and factories have been destroyed. Russia has to pay for it.’
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has sent more than two dozen teams of investigators to the more than 3,000 square mile area that Ukraine recaptured from Russia in a lightning offensive that began last week.
So far, investigators have discovered the bodies of at least six civilians who they say were murdered by the Russians.
In the village of Hrakove, locals led investigators to the graves of two young men whom they claimed had been buried by Russian soldiers.
Investigators have exhumed the bodies and say they show signs of torture and summary execution.
Each has a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Their ears were cut off.
In the village of Zaliznychne, locals led Ukrainian troops to four graves they said contained the bodies of their neighbors killed by Putin’s men.
Three were buried in their gardens, the fourth in an asphalt plant opposite the local train station. Prosecutors say they all bear signs of torture.
Oleksii Kashporovskyi, a Ukrainian journalist turned soldier, told the news site TSN of the atrocities he witnessed during the liberation of the city of Bohorodychne.
Kashporovskyi said he found the bodies of several Ukrainian soldiers who had been beheaded and barefoot next to the corpses of ten civilians.
The only two civilians alive in the village were a 93-year-old woman and her 60-year-old son, who told how the Russians had shot one of her sons and his wife.
She pointed Ukrainians to the spot behind her house where she buried the bodies.
A prayer scribbled on the wall of a prison cell where Ukrainians say Russian troops held people captive for weeks while they tortured them
A Ukrainian man told how he was interrogated in this basement – forced to hold electrical wires while Russian troops zapped him and ordered him to provide information about any government employees
Yulia Petrova, a veterinarian from the city of Kupyansk, told the news site meduza of her life under Russian occupation until she managed to flee last month.
She said Russian troops have set up torture chambers in the basements of buildings where “inhuman screams” – both men and women – could be heard.
Villagers were encouraged to provide information about anyone with pro-Ukraine views – including their families and neighbors – who were subsequently kidnapped.
Some came out of the cellars and were unable to stand or walk after being tortured. Others were never seen again.
Local fishermen told how they found a body floating in a nearby river with hands tied and head in a bag.
They informed the local Russian commander and soldiers took the corpse without saying anything about it.
Other times, drunk Russian soldiers randomly approached civilians in the street and threatened to shoot them.
Yulia explained how she decided to flee after someone told her she was pro-Ukraine, which led to a visit from the occupiers.
She said troops broke into her home, searched it for Ukrainian flags or symbols, searched her phone and — when they couldn’t find anything — pointed a loaded gun at her nine-year-old daughter’s head in an attempt to force a confession. .
Yulia fled the next day, took a ride in a friend’s car and bought her way through checkpoints until she reached Ukrainian territory.
That report matches BBC reporters who went to the town of Balakliya and were shown what the Ukrainians believed was a torture chamber in the basement.
The new atrocities echo those in Bucha and Irpin earlier in the war, when at least 458 civilians died under Russian occupation (photo, a mass grave)
Russian troops used the lower floors of the police station to detain anyone they suspected of being part of the military or government where they were being mistreated.
Up to eight men were held for weeks in cells designed for just two or three people while being interrogated, often while being electrocuted.
According to locals, the Russians turned off the building’s noisy ventilation system during the torture sessions, so that the screams of the victims could be heard outside.
The tactics are exact copies of the atrocities inflicted on the towns of Bucha and Irpin, which were occupied by Russian forces between February and April.
Local investigators and international observers have documented summary executions, enforced disappearances and torture amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
In total, 458 people are known to have died in Bucha and Irpin – many of them rolled into mass graves that were later excavated by Ukrainian troops.
The discovery of the atrocities sparked international condemnation of Russia’s war effort and sparked a tidal wave of support for Ukraine.
Zelensky and several other world leaders labeled them crimes against humanity and called Putin a war criminal, promising to bring all those responsible to justice.
Since then, Ukraine says it has identified many of the soldiers and their commanders who were in the area at the time and published their details online.
Russia continues to deny that its troops are deliberately targeting civilians.