Ukraine finds mass grave site outside retaken city

Ukrainian authorities said they unearthed a mass grave site in the forests outside of the recently retaken city of Izium on Friday. Authorities said that some of the bodies bore signs of torture. Ukrainian police said the area held about 445 graves, and workers dug through the rain and hauled body after body out of the soil. Ukrainian authorities believe most of the dead are civilians. One Ukrainian investigator and several witnesses said some of the dead were shot and others were killed by artillery fire, mines, or airstrikes.

Is Russia really committing war crimes? Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said that some of the bodies exhumed in the Kharkiv region that includes Izium bore signs of torture such as “cut off ears.” Yuliia Paievska is a volunteer medic who was captured by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held at shifting locations in Russian-allied territory in Ukraine's Donetsk region. She told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that she had witnessed her Russian captors ordering prisoners to strip themselves of their clothes before bloodying and tormenting them.

Dig deeper: Read Jill Nelson’s cover story in WORLD magazine about the quest to hold Russia accountable for war crimes committed in Ukraine.