“99%” of the bodies exhumed on Friday in Izyum, a city in eastern Ukraine that was recently retaken from the Russians, “showed signs of violent death,” Oleg Synegubov, the governor of the region, said in the evening, as quoted by AFP.

Ukrainian human rights defender Dmytro Lubinets said in Telegram that “more than 1,000 Ukrainian citizens were probably tortured and killed in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region.

In Izyum, “there are several corpses with their hands tied behind their backs, one person is buried with a rope around their neck. Obviously, these people were tortured and executed,” Synegubov said in Telegram, accompanying his message with photos. hundreds of graves found near Izyum.

According to him, 450 corpses of civilians with traces of violent death and torture were buried at this place discovered by the Ukrainian authorities.

Earlier in the day, an AFP journalist could see at least one body with hands tied with ropes in the same location, but could not immediately tell if it was a civilian or a soldier because the body was badly damaged.

Oleg Synegubov reported in Telegram that among the bodies exhumed during the day by “200 agents and experts” who worked at the scene, “there were also children.”

“The bodies will be sent for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death,” he said. He added: “Each death will be investigated and will become evidence of Russia’s war crimes in international courts.”

“The scale of the crimes committed (by Russians) in Izyum is enormous,” he said, condemning the “bloody and brutal terror.”

The counteroffensive launched by the Ukrainian army in this region at the beginning of September made it possible to recapture part of the territories previously occupied by the Moscow forces.

Moscow, which has previously been accused of war crimes in other parts of Ukraine, including Kiev in the early weeks of the conflict, has always denied the allegations.

• Follow the latest events of the 205th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.