In this war-torn city in northeastern Ukraine, residents carefully check every step for anti-personnel mines. Behind closed doors, the survivors eagerly await the identification of the bodies of loved ones. The hunt for collaborators of the recent Russian occupation is poisoning tight-knit communities.

This is life in Izyum, a city on the Donets River in Kharkiv Oblast, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in September but still suffers from the “legacy” of six months of Russian occupation.

The brutality of the Russian invasion of this strategic supply hub for Russian troops is one of the worst of the entire war, which entered its second year last month.

Citizens of Ukraine were tortured, disappeared and arbitrarily detained. Mass graves with hundreds of bodies were found, and entire neighborhoods were destroyed in the fighting.

Raisins are a terrible reminder of the human cost of war. Six months after his release, residents say they are still paying the price.

In the tree between the church and the city’s main hospital, which is still operating despite heavy Russian shelling, there are large red signs warning about “MINES”.

In this city, everyone has a story to tell: either they stepped on a mine and lost a limb, or they know someone who did. Every day, minefields are discovered hidden on the banks of rivers, on roads, in fields, on roofs of houses, in trees.

Of particular concern are anti-personnel mines, known as “petals”. Small and inconspicuous, they are widespread in the city. Human Rights Watch has documented that Moscow has deployed at least eight types of mines in eastern Ukraine prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

Last January, the organization also called on Kyiv to investigate the Ukrainian military’s use of thousands of banned “petals” in Izyum.

“Now no one can say what percentage of the land in Kharkiv is mined,” said Alexander Filchakov, chief prosecutor of the region. “We find them everywhere.”

Most residents are careful, following familiar paths. But even then they are not safe.

Stepping on mines every week

“We have an average of one person per week injured” by anti-personnel mines, said Dr. Yury Kuzentsov. “I don’t know when I will go to the river or the forest again, even if our lives are restored, since as a medical worker I have seen the consequences.”

One patient stepped on mines twice: the first time in June, when he lost part of his heel, and the second time in October, when he lost his entire foot.

Most of Kuzentsov’s patients said they were careful. “They were sure that this would never happen to them,” he said.

Alexander Rabenko, 66, stepped on a mine 200 meters from his home while walking along a familiar path to the river for water.

His son Edward mined the narrow path with a shovel. Rabenko passed it several times until he lost his right leg on December 4th.

“I still don’t know how it got there, maybe it was melting snow or a river carrying mines,” he said. “I thought it was safe.”

Rabenko still feels excruciating pain in his leg, which is no longer there. “The doctor said it would take months for my brain to figure out what happened,” she said.

Galina Zikharova, 71, knows exactly what happened to her family of eight. In March last year, a bomb hit the house of her son Alexander, killing 52 people in underground shelters. Among the victims are eight relatives of Zhikharova – her son and his entire family, including two daughters.

Seven bodies of relatives were exhumed in September in a serious state of decomposition. According to him, it took months to identify them. Now she is waiting for another identification – her granddaughter.

Of the 451 bodies exhumed in Izyum, including nearly 440 found in mass graves, 125 have not yet been identified, said Sergei Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv National Police Investigation Department.

According to him, some of them are so decomposed that it is difficult to extract a DNA sample. In other cases, the authorities are unable to find the common DNA of relatives. The painstaking work can take months.

Zhikharova hopes that the remains of her granddaughter will soon be identified, and her family will finally be able to rest in peace.

“I will bury them, I will make graves,” he said. “After that, what do we do? We will live”.

The scale of destruction in Izyum, with a pre-war population of 50,000, is breathtaking. According to Ukrainian authorities, 70-80% of residential buildings have been destroyed. Many have black marks from fires, leaky roofs and boarded up windows.

Accomplices of the Russian conquerors

Gradually, the residents return, horrified to find that their homes are empty and their belongings stolen. They seethe with anger, knowing that the Russian offensive on Izyum was made possible thanks to the help of local collaborators who supported Moscow.

“At the beginning of the war, there were cases when collaborators withdrew units of the Russian Armed Forces by secret routes to the flanks and rear of our units,” said Brigadier General Dmitry Krasilnikov, commander of the Ukrainian troops in the Kharkiv region. — That’s what happened in Izyum.

“Because of this, many of our soldiers died, and we were forced to retreat from Izyum for a while, and now we see what the city has become,” he said.

outcast Kamenka

In the nearby village of Kamenka, every house bears traces of the war. Twenty families returned, and many unleashed their “poison” on Vasily Khrusky. He became an outcast of the village.

“They say I was a collaborator, a traitor,” said the 65-year-old. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Khrushka says that he stayed in the village while the Russians took it because he did not want to part with his cows and three calves, fearing that they would die in his absence. She sent his family away and he took refuge in the basement.

The Russian military knocked on the door and asked if Ukrainian soldiers lived in the house. When he said no, they filled the place with bullets to make sure.

Later they passed offering canned food. They gave them milk. He was asked if he had alcohol.

The people took it as a betrayal. They asked why he didn’t do more to help Ukrainian forces by finding a way to expose Russian positions. But Khrushka said that it was impossible to do this – Russian soldiers destroyed the telephone lines.

“I lived in madness,” he said, “I did everything I could to survive.”

He was summoned for interrogation by the SBU. They said that they had heard rumors that he lived in Kamenka to the fullest.

“I was only responsible for my house,” he told them. They let him go.

In November, his luck turned again. In search of firewood, when the temperature dropped, he stepped on a mine and lost his left leg.

Source: Associated Press.