The murderous regime of Russia’s bloodthirsty dictator, Vladimir Putin, is increasingly likely to end up standing trial before an international war crimes tribunal.
This comes after a gruesome, recent discovery on Ukrainian territories newly liberated from the Russian occupiers. This uncovered a mass grave with the remains of more than 450 victims in the eastern town of Izyum.
More Mass Grave Finds Five Months After Atrocities in Kyiv Region
The new grim findings in Eastern Ukraine came after last week.
This is when a surprise large-scale counter-attack by the Ukrainians liberated some 3,000 miles of territory from Russian occupation in the Kharkiv region, routing part of Putin’s troops and causing others to flee for their lives in a humiliating escape.
The discovery of the mass grave in Izyum reminded the world of similar findings in Bucha, Motyzhin, Borodyanka, and other towns in Northern Ukraine. Horrifying war crimes were discovered after the Russians were forced to pull out in early April.
The seeming act of genocide committed by the Russian aggressors in Northern Ukraine at the time cause a global wave of indignation. It also boosted the military support for the Ukrainians on part of the United States and other western nations.
The situation now, however, is largely different from what it was back in April. Now, the initiative seems to be in Ukrainian hands, largely because of the US military supplies of top-notch weapon systems.
A mass grave with 450 killed Ukrainians, most of them civilians, is being exhumed in #Izyum just a few days after its liberation from the Russians. These Ukrainians could have been alive, if Ukraine had been provided with all the weapons Ukrainians needed. pic.twitter.com/k1U6XDVNPo
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) September 17, 2022
Zelensky speaking to the nation tonight on the mass burial site in the Izyum Forest.
He says the Russians threw 17 executed Ukrainian soldiers into a mass grave.
Civilian bodies have traces of torture.
He says it’s time to declare Russia a terror state pic.twitter.com/FzWKKtJRPd
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 17, 2022
At least 440 graves in a mass grave in Izyum
This was told by the head of the investigative department Sergey Bolvinov.
Zelenskyy also spoke about mass graves in the city in an evening address. He noted that "all the necessary investigative actions" have already begun in Izyum. pic.twitter.com/nmXnFSHFXs
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 15, 2022
‘Russia Will Be Held Accountable in Courtrooms, on the Battlefield’
The Presidency of the European Union, the 27-member bloc made up of US allies, officially called for the setting up of an international tribunal to try Russia’s crimes in Ukraine after the discovery of the new mass grave in Izyum.
Jan Lipavsky, the top diplomat of the Czech Republic which presently chairs the Union’s rotating presidency, declared attacks on civilian populations, such as the ones committed by the Russians in Ukraine, are “unthinkable and abhorrent,” as cited by The Daily Mail.
On behalf of the entire EU, he insisted those war crimes and crimes against humanity must not be overlooked. A punishment for “all war criminals” is needed with the “speedy establishment” of an international ad-hoc court.
At least some of the bodies now recovered from the mass grave in Izyum bear traces of horrifying torture; several buildings in the newly liberated town are found to have been used by the Russians as torture chambers.
According to Ukraine’s heroic President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there were more than ten such torture chambers in the formerly Russian-occupied towns in the Kharkiv region.
He declared that is “what the Nazis did”, and what the “Rashists” (i.e. Russian fascists and Nazis) are doing right now. Zelenskyy vowed the Russian invaders are going to be held accountable for their monstrous crimes in two ways: on the battlefield as well as “in courtrooms.”
An announcement by Oleg Synegubov, the head of the regional administration in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, meanwhile revealed that 99% of the exhumed bodies in Izyum reveal “signs of a violent death.”
In some of the cases, the executed Ukrainian victims had their hands tied behind their backs; while in one grave, a man was found with a rope around his neck.
Dmytry Lubinets, the human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, estimated no fewer than 1,000 Ukrainians were tortured and murdered by Russians in the newly liberated lands of the Kharkiv region.
Reports of a mass grave with 440 men, women, and children in Izyum, Ukraine are heartbreaking and should galvanize our support to the brave Ukrainians seeking to liberate their homeland. We stand with Ukraine in pursuing accountability for these crimes.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 16, 2022
This article appeared in BeyondNews and has been published here with permission.These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Sept. 18, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Yq9rQtMdQo
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 18, 2022