Mere miles from Ukraine’s frontline, snow gently falls in a forest on a sea of wooden crosses.
But this poignant scene is punctured by a horrifying reality… this was a mass grave. As many as 449 souls, including children, were buried here during Russia’s occupation. Numbers can be made out on crosses; people’s lives reduced to digits. Some bodies were buried wrapped in carpets, others in plastic bags. Evidence of torture was discovered here — in one case, a body had a rope around its neck. We’re just outside the city of Izium in Kharkiv oblast, north-east Ukraine, about 20 miles from fighting.
Dubbed the gateway to the Donbas — two neighbouring oblasts largely occupied by Russia — Izium was held by Moscow for about half a year until September 2022. With next week marking four years since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we visited to see what life was like in the shadow of war. Deputy Mayor of Izium, Volodymyr Matsokin, showed us the mass grave site. Bodies were exhumed following the site’s discovery but the reminder of death is all around.
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A sign detailing the number buried there between April to August 2022 reads: “This is the place of pain, grief and mourning. Memory eternal to all those killed. The world must know the truth.” Mr Matsokin says: “For us, as members of this community, this is an enormous, overwhelming tragedy – one whose full scale we have not yet fully comprehended. Our acquaintances and loved ones were buried here. Our children’s writer, Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was tortured, was buried here.
“Entire families killed by Russian bombardment were buried here. A family of eight – the Zhykhariev family – was buried here. They were killed by a direct hit from an aerial bomb, in the basement where they were hiding.” Among those found at the mass grave were 23 Ukrainian servicemen.
The discovery of the site made international headlines, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying in September 2022: “Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium. … Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it.”
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Years later, some of the names of the bodies remain a mystery. “Most have undergone full identification and were reburied properly,” Matsokin tells us. “Many of the bodies showed signs of violent death. Some are still in the process of identification. So far, only the sex and approximate age of those individuals have been determined; we still do not know their names.
“We are committed to identifying absolutely everyone whose bodies were found at this mass burial site. It is our duty to ensure that the remains of every community member found here are not only properly and dignifiedly buried, but also laid to rest with their names and surnames restored. We will never stop in our mission to identify every person who was killed and buried here.”
The deputy mayor told of the carnage suffered in Izium in the battle to take the city in March 2022. “Russian aircraft freely entered our airspace and dropped FAB high-explosive aerial bombs. At least two planes were bombing the city,” he says. “Each carried two bombs. Every 40 minutes, a plane would return and attack the city. This continued around the clock. As a result, there were many bodies in public places — parks and streets — of people killed in these air raids. Some people died in basements where they had tried to shelter from the attacks.”
Life under Kremlin rule in Izium was brutal. “During the occupation, 13,000 people remained in the city, about one third of the community’s population at that time,” Mr Matsokin explains. “We asked them how the Russians behaved. Four torture chambers were discovered in the community, where people were tortured in various ways: with electric shocks, beatings, and sexual violence. The Russians acted with complete impunity.”
He adds: “What the Russians did in and to Izium is beyond anything human. It is not even the behaviour of animals – it is the behaviour of monsters. This is grief without limits. I would describe my feelings as anger and a thirst for justice. What they committed are crimes against humanity. Those responsible must be punished. If the world closes its eyes to such things, they will happen again elsewhere.”
He showed us the site of a Russian attack where an apartment building was hit in March 2022, killing dozens. Amid the exposed ruins, several floors up a TV sits on a stand. Two floors down, clothes still hang in a wardrobe. Among those who perished in the strike were the Zhykhariev family.
They included Oleksandr Zhykhariev and wife, Tetiana, who were both 49, her mum Liudmyla Sokol, thought to be in her 70s, and the couple’s daughter Maria Zhykhariev, 13. Other family members killed were Oleksandr and Tetiana’s other daughter, Olena Stolpakova, 31, and her family. They were her husband Dmytro Stolpakov, 33, as well as Olena’s daughter from her first marriage, Oleksandra Paniukhno, eight, and the couple’s five-year old Olesia Stolpakova.
Seven of the eight were found at the mass grave. It has been claimed teenager Mariia was buried at the site too — but her remains were not discovered. She was modest and a little shy, a Ukrainian publication reported, with a talent for art. The family are remembered on a memorial showing their faces in a nearby cemetery; each smile a lasting memory of their lives amid all this death.
Despite the horrors Izium has endured, Mr Matsokin — who knew the family personally — stresses: “We do not want our city to be associated only with tragedy. People live here. We once had a slogan: ‘Izium – the city of real emotions.’ People grow strawberries here, and we even have a festival dedicated to them. We would not want Izium to be perceived as a place of nothing but tragedy. People want to continue living here, to be happy.”
Indeed, work is underway to help people to try and live their lives. At one spot in the city – where nets are used above roads to protect against drones – we’re shown around a Unicef’s child-friendly hub. Kids there enjoyed art therapy classes during our visit, including eight-year-old Miron who we met with his grandmother Tatiana, 51.
“I found my best friends at this hub,” he says. The bright boy lives with mum Yana, 31, and his grandparents in the city – Miron’s dad serves away in the Ukrainian military. The little lad is considering becoming a dentist when he grows up – he jokes they “probably earn well” as treatment is so expensive.
Tatiana says: “Izium is still recovering from the fighting and the Russian occupation. The city is rebuilding both in terms of the mental health of its residents and its physical reconstruction.” She adds: “When you see Izium filled with children’s laughter again, you feel that life is returning to the city. Children’s laughter is a sign of a peaceful and happy life.”
When Tatiana tells of the wish she has for her grandson’s future, it does not feel like she is asking a lot. And, yet, in this stricken place it would be the greatest gift. “I want Miron and the other children to have a peaceful life. Peace is the most important thing on earth,” she says.
To donate to Unicef’s Ukraine appeal for children in crisis visit: https://unicef.uk/ukraine_mirror
