Two forensic technicians dig near a cross in a forest on the outskirts of Izyum, eastern Ukraine on September 16, 2022. Ukraine said on September 16, 2022 it had counted 450 graves at just one burial site near Izyum after recapturing the eastern city from the Russians.

A Ukrainian official in the eastern Kharkiv region said Friday that 436 bodies were exhumed from a mass burial site near the eastern city of Izyum recaptured from Russian forces.

“Today, the exhumation of bodies from the mass grave in Izyum is being completed. A total of 436 bodies have been exhumed. Most of them have signs of violent death, and 30 have signs of torture. There are bodies with rope around their necks, with their hands tied, with broken limbs and gunshot wounds,” the Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said in a statement on social media.

Ukraine recaptured Izyum and other towns in the east this month, crippling Kremlin supply routes and bringing fresh claims of Russian atrocities with the discovery of hundreds of graves – some containing multiple bodies.

“Several men have had their genitals amputated. All this is evidence of the terrible torture to which the invaders subjected the inhabitants of Izyum,” Synegubov added.

The Kremlin has denied its forces were responsible for large-scale killings in east Ukraine and accused Kyiv of fabricating its discoveries of mass graves in recaptured territory.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred

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