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A senior Ukrainian official told Fox News Digital on Saturday.
Russian forces withdrew from Kharkov last week as Ukrainian ground forces advanced rapidly and reclaimed much of the region’s territory from Russian forces.
But the devastation left by Russia resembles the alleged atrocities and war crimes witnessed in other recaptured areas across Ukraine, like Bucha and Irpin.
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“We are discovering new scenes of atrocities and updating evidence of war crimes,” Yury Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Minister, told Fox News Digital. “Men, women, children. Some were exhumed with their hands tied behind their backs.”
Eyewitnesses to the exhumed bodies said they had been shot or killed by artillery, mines or airstrikes.
“We see what we have warned before that wherever the Russian occupiers set foot, they leave disasters, they leave atrocities, they commit war crimes, they terrorize and terrorize peaceful peoples. I will,” he added.
Sak said a torture chamber was discovered in the city of Kupiansk, about 75 miles north of Izyum, and used by Russian forces to terrorize people suspected of working to stop a Russian invasion.
As many as 10 torture chambers have been found since the Russian army withdrew, according to a report on Friday.
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Since early September, Ukrainian forces have retaken some 3,300 square miles of territory that had been under Russian occupation, but Sack said Ukrainians are still not celebrating.
“It’s a completely paralyzing idea to try to imagine what the Ukrainian military will discover when we liberate a city like Mariupol,” Sack said, leaving hundreds of soldiers and civilians mentioned the site of one of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine where was trapped after Russian troops marched into the city. “Completely destroyed, razed and bombarded with rockets and bombs for months.”
At least 25,000 civilians are believed to have died in the southern port city by the time Ukrainian forces left the city in May after weeks of heavy fighting, Sack said, leading to starvation and an eventual ceasefire. said the risk of
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“We understand that this war is not over yet. We understand that we are about to face a dangerous, slaughterful and still well-equipped enemy.” He added: “We are determined to keep doing what we are doing.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a number of investigations into alleged war crimes and human rights abuses had been launched this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.