Zelensky says ‘torture chambers’ where civilians were abused found in Kharkiv region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine has found “torture chambers” where civilians were abused in areas of the Kharkiv region recently liberated from Russian occupation.

Zelensky said in an address that officials found premises where civilians were kept, including seven citizens of the Republic of Sri Lanka who were students at the Kupyansk Medical College. The group of Sri Lankan citizens are now receiving medical care, Zelensky added.

This comes on the heels of Zelensky’s announcement on Thursday that Ukraine had found another mass burial site near Izyum, with more than 440 graves. Zelensky noted on Friday that there was evidence that Russian soldiers “shot at the buried just for fun.”

“Russia has repeated in Izium what it did in Bucha,” Zelensky said. “And now we have just begun to learn the full truth about what was happening in Kharkiv region at that time.”

Mass burial sites were found in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, after Russian forces withdrew from the area earlier this year. Ukrainian troops have recovered more than 2,000 square kilometers of territory seized by Russia in the war since launching a major counteroffensive at the beginning of the month, including Izyum, which Ukraine liberated last week.

The United Nations said on Friday that it plans to send investigators to Izyum to examine the mass burial site, a move that Zelensky commended.