Thirty-six more graves of people killed during Russian occupation have been discovered at a cemetery in Kherson, Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin said on Dec. 22. The site also includes the buried bodies of Ukrainian servicemen, according to Yenin.
Ukrainian investigators are currently collecting DNA samples from relatives to identify the victims, the official reported.
In total, over the period of Russian occupation, local morgues in Kherson received about 700 bodies, nearly 100 of which were found to have been harmed by violent means, according to the deputy.
Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson was liberated on Nov. 11. after Russia retreated to the east bank of the Dnipro River.
Yenin also said that more than 450 bodies had already been exhumed in Kharkiv Oblast’s Izium, 40 of which have signs of torture. Most of these people were civilians.
The city of Izium was liberated on Sept. 10 during Ukraine’s sudden counteroffensive in the northeastern region.
Bodies of killed civilians and torture chambers have been discovered in multiple settlements in areas liberated by Ukrainian forces. In late October, Ukraine’s Reintegration Ministry reported that around 1,000 bodies — both military personnel and civilians, including children — had been exhumed in recently liberated settlements.
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