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Pine forests in northeastern Ukraine provide even more shocking evidence of the Russian invasion. Over three days, more than 170 bodies of victims, both civilians and soldiers, were exhumed from graves near the city of Idzumo. Czech Radio Special Correspondent Martin Dorazin was also there.
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We arrived at the outskirts of Ijumu city. Here the pine forests begin. In these places, the Russians buried their tanks and other military equipment in the sand. There are endless pits left by the Russian army, but unfortunately they are not the ones we are going to now.
Exhumations of war victims in Izju continue. Listen to special correspondent Martin Dorázin’s report straight from the scene
A little further – police cars and a tent. And lots of white and black bags on the ground. These are the bodies of those they dug up today. The graves here are numbered, nameless 127, 126, 125. Here is one of the few names on the cross: Raisa Trifonovna Tkachenkova died on 04/17/2022. The whole forest is full of graves, they counted 445. Plus one mass grave.
They were digging up one of the bodies right in front of me. On the right, four experts in white overalls are pulling the body wrapped in a sheet. For this, they need straps so that the remains do not break completely. I see a person’s legs with pants or pantyhose. And you better wear a mask because the smell is getting unbearable.
Mrs. Lyudmila also came to this cemetery to look for the remains of her husband and mother-in-law. She is at least a little lucky in all this horror. She remembers where they buried her husband. However, he does not know where his mother-in-law’s grave is.
“The mother-in-law went to collect some documents, but did not come to the place. An aerial bomb killed her on the way. My husband and I hid in the basement, I slept away from the entrance, he lay with his head closer to the stairs so he could breathe better. Then there was an impact and he died on the spot. It was dark, I tried to breathe from mouth to mouth, but in vain. I myself was wounded…. I was left all alone. It’s very difficult – if I didn’t have my pet, I’d really go crazy.”
Mrs. Liudmila buried Jura’s husband in the yard.
“22. In May, a van marked Load 200 arrived. They dug up the body and brought it here – to the forest. I was against it, because I wanted to wait and bury my husband in the cemetery next to his parents. But they did not listen to me at all. It turned out that the Russians paid them for each a Ukrainian corpse taken away. And a lot of people just disappeared, including my friends. Now they find corpses with their heads shot or with a bag over their heads. They just tortured them, killed them and buried them.”
According to the official information given to us by Dimitr Ševčuk, head of the war crimes investigation team of the Prosecutor’s Office, the total number of people buried here is not yet clear. Or rather, buried. Some graves contain not one body, but two or four. Among those they have already dug up are women and children.
Weather permitting and not too much rain, these works should be completed by the end of the week. A UN team of experts was supposed to appear here on Monday, but it has not yet arrived.
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