Ukraine continued to exhume bodies from a mass grave in the recently liberated Kharkiv region and investigate allegations of torture by Russian troops, as the United States warned Moscow not to use nuclear or chemical weapons during its war with Kyiv.
The discovery of a burial pit in the eastern city of Izyum, which Russian forces occupied for several months, prompted EU presidency holder, the Czech Republic, to call for the establishment of a new international tribunal to try Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say evidence of violence has been found on most of the bodies already exhumed from the mass grave in Izyum, where more than 450 people are thought to have been buried during its occupation by Russian troops.
“In Kharkiv region, investigative work is continuing in areas that were liberated from the Russian occupation. All the crimes of the [Russians] are being recorded, evidence of their guilt is being collected,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
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“Torture chambers have been found where civilians of occupied cities and towns were abused . . . There is already clear evidence of torture,” he added.
“The world must react to all this . . . It is good that UN units are already preparing a group of employees who will visit this place near Izyum, who will see and be able to report to everyone in the UN system about what the Russian terrorists did.”
Russia has not addressed the allegations over Izyum, which its troops seized in April, but earlier rejected as “fake” the overwhelming evidence of atrocities committed by its soldiers when they were in Bucha, Irpin and other towns outside Kyiv in February and March.
“In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which now holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals . . . I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.”
Moscow’s military fled in disarray from much of Kharkiv region this month in the face of a swift Ukrainian counterattack, abandoning dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles and large ammunition stores, but the Kremlin insisted that the withdrawal was part of an organised regrouping of its forces in the neighbouring Donbas area.
Heavy fighting continues in Donbas and the occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine, and Russian artillery and missiles continue to strike Ukrainian cities and towns; in the village of Strileche in Kharkiv province, four medics were killed by shelling on Sunday while evacuating a psychiatric hospital, according to regional governor Oleh Synehubov.
Russian president Vladimir Putin told Indian leader Narendra Modi on Friday that he would “do everything to stop this [war] as soon as possible” and blamed Ukraine for its continuation.
Shortly afterwards, however, he insisted that “our offensive operation in the Donbas is not stopping”.
If Ukraine continued to put up fierce resistance “then the response will be more serious”, Mr Putin warned, before adding: “The plan is not subject to adjustment.”
In a television interview to be aired in full on Sunday, US president Joe Biden told Mr Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” he said, warning of a “consequential” response from Washington.
“They will become more of a pariah in the world than they have ever been . . . And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”
Fears for safety at the damaged Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station near the front line in Russian-occupied southeastern Ukraine eased a little on Saturday, when it was reconnected to Ukraine’s national grid.
