Over 1,000 people tortured, killed in Russia-occupied areas: Ukraine

The Ukraine parliament‍‍`s human rights commissioner on Friday said more than 1,000 people had been tortured and killed in Russian-occupied areas of Kharkiv region, Interfax news agency said.

Dmytro Lubinets also said that in the coming days Ukrainian authorities would release the exact number of people found at a mass burial site in the city of Izium, the agency added.

Investigators searching through what appears to be one of the largest mass burial sites discovered in Ukraine have found evidence of atrocities, including torture, on land recently recaptured from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Friday.

In a video he apparently rushed out to underscore the gravity of the discoveries just hours after exhumations began, Zelenskyy said hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, had been found “tortured, shot, killed by shelling” near Izium’s Pishchanske cemetery. He cited evidence of atrocities, such as a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms.

In the video, Zelenskyy said more than 400 graves have been found at the site but that the number of victims isn’t yet known. Zelenskyy, who visited the Izium area on Wednesday, said the discoveries showed again the need for world leaders to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would press on with the war despite the success of the recent Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of the entire territory of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas remains Russia’s main goal.

He added that “we aren’t in a rush” to achieve the stated goals, noting that Russia has only engaged volunteer soldiers in the operation.