Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Friday of torture and war crimes in northeastern Ukraine and compared the fallout in liberated areas to Russia’s withdrawal from near Kiev months ago.
In an interview in his presidential office, he said that many Ukrainians were buried at sites in the northeast, including entire families and people who were tortured.
“To date, there are 450 dead and buried. But there are others, separate burials of many people. Tortured people. Entire families in certain territories,” he said.
Asked if there was evidence of war crimes, he said: “It’s all there. Investigative commissions with international partners, joint investigative commissions,” he said.
“There are some tests and evaluations are being done, both Ukrainian and international, and this is very important for us, for the world to know this,” he said.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zelensky’s allegations.
Russia regularly denies targeting civilians during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine and has said in the past that allegations of human rights abuses are a smear campaign.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synhubov, said Friday at one of the burial sites in the city of Izium that some bodies exhumed there had been found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Moscow has not commented on the mass burial site at Izium, which was a Russian frontline stronghold before Ukraine’s counteroffensive forced its forces to flee.