The Izyum massacre: over 400 bodies buried in a forest. The UN will send a team

"Russia leaves death behind wherever it goes," sums up Ukrainian President

Ukrainian authorities reported finding a mass burial site, where about 440 corpses were allegedly buried, in a pine forest near the city of

,

last week after more than five months of Russian occupation.

National police chief

said in a press conference that all the bodies recovered so far turn out to be civilians.

If confirmed, it would be the largest mass burial in Europe since the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

The

they will send a team of experts to the scene: "Any news of this kind is shocking and therefore it is important to establish the circumstances. Our colleagues from the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine intend to conduct an on-site monitoring visit to determine the circumstances of the death of these people, "said the spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

.

The first chroniclers who arrived yesterday, before the recovery of the bodies began, saw an

, all without names, many numbered with numbers up to over 400.

. 

There was at least one

, identified by a marker writing: "17 Ukrainian soldiers".

According to

, ministerial commissioner for missing persons, there could be more, even double.

Crosses and marker writings to identify the graves had never been seen in the other mass burials found since the beginning of the conflict.

Before starting the exhumation operations, Ukrainian soldiers scanned the site with metal detectors for hidden explosives and marked the burials with red and white tape

from the crosses, some bearing

. 

“We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has brought about,” Zelensky said again, “Bucha, Mariupol and now sadly Izyum.

”. 

Sergei Gorodko

, a resident of Izyum, told international reporters that among the hundreds of bodies buried there were dozens of adults and children killed in the bombing of a Russian apartment building.

He says he pulled some of them out of the rubble "with my own hands".

Police detective

told British broadcaster Sky News that some of the people buried were injured by gunfire, others by artillery fire, mines or aerial bombardments.

According to city councilor

, hundreds of people died during and after the Russian capture of the city last March-April.

Many of them could not have a proper burial.

Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister  

said that during the advance into the Kharkiv region several "

" were also found where Ukrainian citizens and foreigners were detained "in completely inhuman conditions" and assured that the government is "carefully documenting all evidence of war crimes"