Ukraine Repurposing Abandoned Russian Equipment

Over 500 Civilian Bodies Found in Kharkiv

More than 500 civilian bodies have been recovered throughout the Kharkiv region since the beginning of September, a Ukrainian official said.

During a news briefing Thursday, Serhii Bolvinov, head of Kharkiv Oblast police’s investigative department, said 534 civilian bodies, including 19 children, have been recovered in liberated areas of Kharkiv since Sept. 7.

Many of those bodies recovered, 477, came from the mass burial site in the liberated city of Izium.

Police have also found 22 locations they believe were used a torture chambers in the liberated region, Bolvinov said.

There were several detention centers holding civilians and prisoners of ware in almost all major Russian-held cities, he added.

“Russian units set up such places of detention of civilians and prisoners of war in almost all the settlements where they were based,” Bolvinov said in a news briefing Thursday.

He added that the most common torture techniques were electric shock and severe beatings with sticks and other objects based on witness accounts. There are cases of pulling out nails and using gas masks to restrict breathing, Bolvinov said.

Bolvinov said police are also investigating reports that Russian solider set up headquarters in a private house in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, east of Izium. He said witnesses heard screams and pleas for help from the house’s basement.

This report comes amid ongoing war crimes investigations in areas of Ukraine that were liberated from Russian occupation since the invasion began.