UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Nov 13 – Since February 24, 2022, the Russian armed aggression in the Kharkiv region has killed 2,750 civilians, including 95 children, announced the Head of the Investigation Department of the National Police of Kharkiv Region Serhii Bolvinov in an interview with Ukrinform.

Towns and villages of the Kharkiv Oblast come under massive Russian shelling and air strikes, often during the full-scale invasion, as Moscow targets civilian and critical infrastructure in the region.

According to Serhii Bolvinov, another 75 killed people have not been identified. Most of the unidentified bodies — 52 — were found at a mass grave in Izium, a city with population of almost 45,000 (2022) data that Russians occupied for over half a year at the start of the full-scale war.

“We exhumed 448 bodies there [at a mass grave in Izium], which were simply thrown into the ground and buried without coffins or any packages… This is a huge number. The identification process is quite complicated. This is not only for Kharkiv police or Ukrainian police in general, but it is also complex and time-consuming all over the world,” Bolvinov said.

The police have information on where, who, and under what circumstances found each person’s body and when they were buried in the Izium forest.

“Legally, they are all considered unidentified. But we have an understanding of who they might be for 26 of them. However, we have no DNA matches. There are different stories. For example, the family went abroad, and close relatives still cannot give us a DNA sample. There are certain procedures, and they are in progress. In some cases, there are no DNA matches because the sample for comparison was provided by a distant relative,” he said.

The mass grave near Izium was discovered on September 15, 2022, after the liberation of a large part of the Kharkiv region from Russian troops. During the exhumation, 448 bodies were found, including 414 civilians (194 men, 215 women, and five children), 22 bodies of military personnel, and 11 bodies whose gender [or occupation — ed.] could not be determined. Most of the people buried there died as a result of violent death, and 30 bodies bore clear signs of torture.

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