Ijum, the “Reclaimed City” – “Over 400 Decomposed Bodies” in a Mass Burial Ground

Izyum in Kharkiv Oblast, which had been a Russian supply base for Donetsk Oblast, was attacked by Ukrainian troops on September 10, and the Russian forces occupying the town retreated. I entered Izyum immediately after its liberation, guided by the Ukrainian military. I drove south from the provincial capital, Halkiu, and approached the city of Ijoum. As I drove south from the provincial capital, Kharkiv, I approached the city of Ijoum, where I noticed a deserted Russian checkpoint on the shoulder of the road, and destroyed and charred Russian tanks and armored vehicles left behind.

According to the Ijum municipal council, 1,000 residents were killed during the five months of Russian military occupation. The burial site for the bodies of the cruelly killed was located in a forest north of Ijum. Passing by trenches and tank shelters dug into the ground and former Russian military positions, we passed countless rows of fill dirt in the trees. Ukrainian soldiers and policemen in white protective gear were digging up buried bodies.

Sweaty and working with shovels, the soldiers dug about 1.5 meters into the earth, revealing a foot with shoes on. Further digging revealed a body wrapped in a cloth. When the cloth was carefully unwrapped, a strong smell of decomposition hit the nose, and the body of a man in clothes whose face was unrecognizable was revealed. An examiner in a mask takes pictures and collects samples from the body for DNA analysis. Next to him, a decomposed body in women’s clothing, barely retaining its original human form, lies on the ground. A female examiner is taking DNA samples with an experienced hand. Similar bodies were being dug up one after another.

We need to dig up each body one by one to find out the reason for death,” she said. We have already found bodies that appear to have been abused or tortured,” said a war crimes investigator.

We have already found bodies that appear to have been abused and tortured,” said the war crimes investigator.

On that day, 445 bodies were identified. Some were found with their wrists tied with bandages, and even the body of a child was found.

Ijum was home to several interrogation and torture facilities, one of which was used as a police station. The authorities led us to the basement, where we found a chair that had been used for interrogations, and a table with a wooden club and gas masks placed haphazardly on it. The gas masks were used to make the victims nearly suffocate when they were forced to confess. There were traces of violence by the Russian military against the residents everywhere in Ijum. The horrific scenes I saw in the mass burial ground and torture chambers have seeped into my mind and I still cannot forget them.