UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the world to react to Russian atrocities after a mass burial site was found in the recently re-taken city of Izyum.
Around 440 bodies have been discovered at the site in the Kharkiv region, which was recently recaptured from Moscow.
In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy said it was too early to establish the exact number of people buried there and investigations were ongoing, but he said the dead included both children and adults, civilians and military.
“Tortured, shot, killed by shelling,” Zelenskyy said.
“Even entire families are buried there: mother, father and daughter.”
He added there was clear evidence of “torture and humiliating treatment of people”.
Russia was forced to pull back its forces from large swathes of north-eastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counter-offensive.
In its latest update on the situation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it is unclear whether Russia’s frontline forces have adequate reserves or morale to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault in eastern parts of the country.
British defence intelligence analysts believe Moscow has established a defensive line between the Oskil River and the town of Svatove following a successful counter-offensive from the Ukrainians, forcing the Kremlin to concede swathes of territory.
The zone is viewed as important partly because it sits along the border of the Luhansk region, part of the Donbas, which Russia has sought to “liberate” as one of its key war aims.
Any substantial loss of territory here would “unambiguously undermine” Putin’s strategy for the conflict, the experts say.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said the recapture of Izyum was a “huge strategic gain”, militarily speaking.
“Ukraine is making confident advances in the north-east and the south-east of the country as well,” she told Sky News.
“We are making progress for our sake, but also for the sake of bringing back long-standing peace to the continent.”
Asked what she thought Russian President Vladimir Putin might do next, she said: “Nobody can be in the mind of that power-crazed leader.”
She added: “Whatever it is, we have to be prepared for it – we have to be prepared for it as Ukrainians, you have to be prepared for it in the UK.
“And actually, people worldwide need to be prepared that something absolutely atrocious, another crazy move, can happen any time.
“For that, Ukrainians need to have the weapons to protect themselves, the ammunition in the necessary amount to protect themselves.
“And the West needs to be prepared to apply every sanction that there is in the book against Russia.”
Meanwhile Putin has vowed Russia’s plans will not be changed after Ukraine’s latest counter-offensive.
In his first public comments on the matter, the Russian president said that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on vital Ukraine’s infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
Speaking to reporters after attending a summit of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he sees no need to revise it.
“We aren’t in a rush,” the Russian leader said, adding that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s move to reclaim control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages marked the largest military setback for Moscow since its forces had to retreat from areas near the capital early in the war.
Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.”
He said that Ukraine has tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “we so far have responded with restraint”.
“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” the Russian leader added.
“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south.
“Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”
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