Ukrainian authorities say they have found evidence that Russian troops committed war crimes in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkov.
A senior police officer from the town of Balaklia says Russian troops there regularly tortured detainees from the local police station. The occupiers are also said to have captured soldiers and family members of soldiers. In addition, they also looked for people who helped the Ukrainian army.
According to the police, eyewitnesses reported that the Russians used electricity to torture the prisoners, among other things. According to unconfirmed reports from other parts of the region, the Russian army also killed civilians.
Kharkiv was occupied by the Russians for months, but according to Kiev, dozens of places have been recaptured in recent days. This weekend, soldiers were withdrawn from part of the region. According to the Kremlin, the Russian army left there because of a strategic “regrouping”.
Earlier this year, when Russian troops withdrew from the area around the Ukrainian capital Kiev, at least 1,300 civilians were found dead. Hundreds of dead Ukrainian men and women have previously been found in places like Butsha and Irpin. Moscow denied that the killings were the work of Russian soldiers and claimed the atrocities were staged by Ukraine.