(In the 7th paragraph, a missing word has been added. It should read: “which should show torture chambers and devices”.)
Kyiv (dpa-AFX) – The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has compared the actions of the Russian occupiers in his country with the Nazi atrocities in World War II. There is cruel torture, deportations, burned cities, bottomless hatred and nothing alive anymore under Russian occupation, said Selenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has demanded the rapid establishment of an international special tribunal to punish suspected Russian war crimes. The country will hold the rotating EU Council Presidency until the end of the year.
After the bodies were found in the recaptured eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, the United States and Germany, among others, called for those responsible to be held accountable. “These terrible crimes absolutely have to be solved – preferably by the United Nations,” said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The UN should be given quick access to secure evidence. “Those responsible for war crimes must be brought to justice.”
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky accused Russia of leaving “mass graves” in the region with the bodies of hundreds of people who had been shot and tortured. “We must not overlook this. We demand the punishment of all war criminals,” Lipavsky wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
11-year-old girl killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv region
Even after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the eastern Kharkiv region a week ago, the shelling continued there, according to Ukrainian sources. The enemy fired heavily on the liberated cities of Izyum and Chuhuiv, residential and commercial buildings, as well as gas stations and production facilities were destroyed, Ukrainian regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said on Sunday in his blog for the Telegram news service. An eleven-year-old girl was killed in the shelling in Chuhuiv. When driving in the region, two women were fatally injured by a tank shell.
The evening before, Sinegubov also informed that around 60 bodies had been recovered from the mass grave site in a forest near the city of Izyum. Most women and men were therefore civilians. Many Ukrainian soldiers were among the dead. Most died violent deaths, he said. The exhumation was scheduled to continue on Sunday. The identity of the people and the cause of death are to be clarified. UN experts should also help.
Zelenskyj: Will determine the identity of all perpetrators
The Ukrainian president said the Russians, unlike the Nazis, would not make soap from the killed Ukrainians – or lampshades from their skin. “But the principle is the same,” said Zelenskyj almost seven months after the start of the Russian war of aggression. Selenskyj described the occupiers who had fled Kharkiv as “racists” and said that the “Nazis” also behaved in the same way. “Racism” combines the words Russia and fascism and is used by many Ukrainians as a term for “Russian fascism”. Like the “Nazis,” the “racists” would be held accountable on the battlefield and in court, he said.
“We will determine the identities of everyone who tortured and mistreated, who brought these atrocities from Russia here to Ukrainian territory,” emphasized the 44-year-old. When they fled, the occupiers left torture devices behind. Ukrainian authorities released photos purporting to show torture chambers and equipment. More than 10 such chambers have now been discovered in cities in the liberated area, he said. “Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied territory.”
According to Zelenskyy, people were tortured with wires and electric shocks. For example, a torture room with electric torture tools was discovered at a train station in Kosatscha Lopan.
More than 440 graves with corpses have been found in Izyum. According to initial findings, people are said to have died when Russia fired heavily on the city at the end of March. At that time, hundreds of dead civilians – some with signs of torture and their hands tied – were also found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Since then, Bucha has been considered a symbol for the most serious war crimes.
NATO military: Western military aid makes a real difference
The chairman of the NATO military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, sees Western military aid and the warfare of the Ukrainian military as decisive factors for Kiev’s recent successes. “The ammunition, equipment and training that the allies and other nations provide make a real difference on the battlefield,” said the Dutchman on Saturday in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, where the committee met. The Ukrainian army had recently recaptured territory occupied by Russian forces in a counter-offensive in the east of the country.
In Germany, meanwhile, the debate about deliveries of Western-style main battle tanks to Ukraine continued. Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejects this, despite increasingly loud demands, including from his own coalition. “We will not go it alone in everything we do,” said Scholz on Deutschlandfunk. The SPD politician emphasized the support already provided. It was precisely the weapons that Germany had made available that “made the difference and also made the current successes that Ukraine has achieved possible,” said Scholz. That’s why it “makes sense that we continue there”. So far, no NATO country has delivered Western-style main battle tanks to Ukraine.
According to British intelligence services, Russia has intensified its attacks on civilian Ukrainian targets with long-range missiles in the past seven days, according to the daily short report by the British Ministry of Defense on Sunday. These goals offer no immediate military gain. It is likely that Moscow is increasingly relying on such attacks to undermine the morale of the Ukrainians and the government, it said./mau/DP/he