'Murders for the sake of Russian propaganda' — Ukraine identifies 13 collaborators accused of war crimes in Izium

The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office has identified 13 pro-Russian collaborators accused of war crimes in Izium in 2022, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko reported on March 13.

"They thought the occupation would hide their faces, but they were wrong," Kravchenko wrote in a Telegram post.

Izium, a town in Kharkiv Oblast with a pre-invasion population of 45,000, lies in the southeastern part of Kharkiv Oblast, over 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the regional center, Kharkiv.

Izium was occupied by Russian troops from April 1 until September 10, 2022. After the liberation, a total of 447 bodies were exhumed from Izium's mass burial site, the State Emergency Service reported on Sept. 25, 2022. All but 22 bodies belonged to civilians.

Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synyehubov said at the time that most bodies contained "signs of violent death," and 30 of them had traces of torture.

According to Kravchenko's  report, the collaborators — 11 soldiers within Russia's 2nd Army Corps, a deputy of the Russian-controlled so-called Luhansk People's Republic, the head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic's "Union of Cinematographers" — defected to Russia following the occupation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in 2014.

During the occupation of Izium, Kharkiv Oblast, the collaborators looted and tortured local residents, while some were held in metal containers without food or water, Kravchenko said. He added that collaborators used beatings and threats to extract information about Ukraine's war veterans and military personnel.

The collaborators recorded footage of their atrocities to make propaganda videos. For such videos, they received promotions and rewards, including from Russia's top officials, the report says. Among the victims of such a video was a 46-year-old man, assistant to a deputy at Izyum City Council.

"The man was brutally beaten and shot in the face, and his body was dumped near a railroad crossing," Kravchenko said. "(These were) Murders for the sake of Russian propaganda."

Under the procedural supervision of the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office, all 13 men have been notified that they are suspected of treason and violations of the laws and customs of war.

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