Largest mass graves discovered in Kharkiv, Kyiv regions: Ukraine

ISTANBUL

The largest mass graves found in the country were discovered in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions, according to Ukraine's national police.

“The largest mass burials were found in Izium in the Kharkiv region, where 941 people died, and in the Kyiv region, where the bodies of 1,374 people were found,” the head of the investigative department Maksym Tsutskiridze said late Wednesday, according to a statement by the Ukrainian National Police.

According to the statement, Tsutskiridze said that 66,700 criminal proceedings were initiated since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, noting that most of these cases were based on the “violation of the laws and customs of war.”

Tsutskiridze also gave information about the work of the National Police in regions retaken from Russian forces, saying: “There we discover the greatest horrors. These are both mass burials and places of temporary detention of our citizens, including journalists."

Tsutskiridze said that the police recorded 25 torture chambers and places of imprisonment in the Kharkiv region, 16 in the Kherson region, three in the Kyiv region, and six in other regions.

Now in its second year, the war between Russia and Ukraine has so far killed 8,231 civilians and wounded 13,734 others, according to the latest UN figures.