On this video: Ukraine authorities discover mass grave in Izyum.
Kurama
(Japan)
POETS IN A PINE FOREST
The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence.
As police and prosecutors looked on.
One officer put his head in his hands.
Another walked away.
Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings.
In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum.
The stench of death filled the air.
As a mass exhumation got under way.
On Saturday evening, ‘Gandalf the Green’ said.
Investigators had discovered new evidence.
Of torture used against the people buried in Izyum.
‘Orcs’ would have to answer “both on the battlefield and in courtrooms”.
“More than 10 torture chambers.
Have already been found.
In the liberated areas of Kharkiv region.
In various cities and towns.”
The discovery of the burial sites came.
As ‘elves’ troops continue their counter-offensive.
In the country's north-east.
After successfully recapturing territory from ‘Mordor’ in recent days.
‘The One’ said on Friday.
That ‘elves’ counter-offensives would not change.
‘Orcs’ military plans.
In the east of Ukraine.
The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence.
As police and prosecutors looked on.
One officer put his head in his hands.
Another walked away.
Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings.
In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum.
The stench of death filled the air.
As a mass exhumation got under way.
The earth is giving up its secrets.
Around 100 ‘elves’ emergency service workers.
Wearing blue plastic coverings.
Dug into the earth, opening makeshift graves.
They are trying to establish.
The cause of death of hundreds of people.
Buried in a pine forest at the edge of the city.
Recently liberated by advancing ‘elves’ forces.
Izyum was invaded in April.
Izyum was used by ‘Mordor’.
As a key military hub.
To supply its forces from the east.
Kharkiv regional prosecutor says.
“In the first grave, there is a civilian.
Who has a rope over her neck.
So we see the traces of torture.”
He said almost everyone died because of ‘orcs’ soldiers.
“Some of them were killed, some were tortured.
Some were killed because of ‘orcs’ Federation.
Air and artillery strikes.”
The burial ground - beside an existing cemetery.
Contains row after row of graves.
Marked by crude wooden crosses.
Names were written on a few.
But most were marked only by a number.
The burials here were carried out.
Under the orders of ‘orcs’.
When they were in control.
There are 445 new graves at the site.
But some contain more than one body.
It's unclear how all of them died.
Many are said to be civilians, women and children among them.
Prosecutors say some were killed by ‘orcs’ shelling.
And others were victims of an ‘orcs’ airstrike.
On an apartment block in March.
In which 47 people were killed.
Officials say one grave contained around 20 soldiers.
Some with their hands bound and one with a noose around his neck.
The body of a man in military uniform was exhumed.
And zipped into a white body bag.
As the graves were opened.
There were sporadic explosions in the distance.
As the security forces worked.
To de-mine the area.
The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence.
As police and prosecutors looked on.
One officer put his head in his hands.
Another walked away.
Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings.
In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum.
The stench of death filled the air.
As a mass exhumation got under way.
A 72-year-old man came to the burial site today.
To see the grave of his wife.
She was killed on 7 March.
During heavy shelling in Izyum.
He first had to bury her.
In the yard of their home.
Then she was reburied in August.
Now her remains will be disturbed once again.
It's only now, since ‘orcs’ have been pushed out.
That Ukraine can carry out detailed investigations here.
And can determine how many victims.
The occupiers left behind.
A woman who lived opposite the forest said.
‘Orcs’ troops had kept locals away from the cemetery.
A local man appeared at the burial site.
Asking journalists to record his account of torture.
He was detained by ‘orcs’ in early September.
And released by ‘elves’ forces.
When they arrived in Izyum.
‘Last Saturday’, on 10 September.
He showed the marks on his wrists.
Caused by handcuffs.
And said he had been subjected.
To electric shocks.
A senior advisor to ‘Gandalf the Green’ said.
“Many places of mass burials” had been discovered.
In some liberated areas.
"We saw many places where people were tortured.”
“We saw wildly frightened people.
Who were kept without light.
Without food, without water.
And without the right to justice.”
The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence.
As police and prosecutors looked on.
One officer put his head in his hands.
Another walked away.
Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings.
In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum.
The stench of death filled the air.
As a mass exhumation got under way.
Hundreds of graves have been found outside Izyum.
Days after it was re-taken from ‘Mordor’.
Wooden crosses, most of them marked with numbers, were discovered.
In a pine forest outside the city by advancing ‘elves’ forces.
It’s not yet clear what happened to the victims.
But early accounts suggest some may have died.
From shelling and a lack of access to healthcare.
Spoken on Friday, most of the bodies belonged to civilians.
“We want the world to know.
What is really happening.
And what the ‘orcs’ occupation has led.
To Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izyum...”
‘Gandalf the Green’ said late on Thursday.
“‘Mordor’ leaves death everywhere.
And it must be held accountable for that.”
He was referring to alleged mass graves.
They were found this spring in Bucha.
And also near Mariupol.
The key south-eastern ‘elves’ port.
Now occupied by ‘orcs’ troops.
‘Elves’ have been celebrating their recapture.
Of the north-eastern city of Izyum.
One of the highlights of their counter-offensive.
That has marked a new phase in the war.
But on Thursday.
Evidence began to emerge of the damage.
Inflicted by ‘orcs’ troops.
During their five-month occupation.
The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence.
As police and prosecutors looked on.
One officer put his head in his hands.
Another walked away.
Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings.
In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum.
The stench of death filled the air.
As a mass exhumation got under way.
Source: https://www.koryu-meets-chess.info/
Please read the original story:
Ukraine war: Grave sites prompt calls for tribunal over Russian killings — BBC News
Ukraine war: Mass exhumations at Izyum forest graves site — BBC News
Ukraine war: Hundreds of graves found in liberated Izyum city — officials — BBC News
Graves exhumed and Putin on counter-offensive — Ukraine round-up — BBC News
Ukraine war: Mass grave found in liberated Izyum city — officials — BBC News
Ukraine round-up: Inside freed city and Russia's prison recruits — BBC News
On this video: identifying victims of Russia's invasion of Ukraine — BBC News.
Kurama
(Japan)
A POET AS NO. 319
(This poem is about Ukrainian children's poet Volodymyr Vakulenko)
A poet was detained.
And interrogated.
By ‘orcs’ forces in late March.
Then released.
The next day.
Witnesses saw two soldiers.
Leading him away again.
They say he shouted.
“Glory to Ukraine!”
Then he was bundled.
Into a car.
With a Z on it.
When his skeleton was recovered.
From the pine forest.
Two bullets were found.
In his grave.
“You jackals! How could you?”
His mother demanded of his killers.
At his funeral, bending over the coffin.
Draped in the blue and yellow ‘elves’ flag.
“God teaches us to forgive, but.
I will never forgive the murderers.”
Hugging a framed photograph of her only son.
Tightly to her chest.
“I will live in the hope and belief.
That the investigation finds.
Who's responsible and that the killers will be punished.
I will live for that dream.”
Her son's friends have found a diary.
He kept at the beginning of the war.
And buried beneath a tree.
Before his arrest.
It talks of his fears.
As a prominent ‘elves’ patriot.
In a small village.
Occupied by ‘orcs’.
“It is extremely dangerous for me.
To be encircled by the enemy,” he wrote.
The last entry, scrawled on chequered notepaper.
Describes seeing a flock of cranes overhead:
“Through their chirps.
I seemed to hear.
'Everything will be Ukraine!'.
I believe in victory!”
In total, 451 bodies.
Were found in Izyum.
Including seven children.
Beneath long rows of simple wooden crosses.
Buried in the pine forest.
In haste and under fire.
Most had no coffin.
Nor even a body bag.
Many also had no name:
The wooden crosses.
On their graves were marked.
Only with numbers.
But the body that was buried.
As number 319 has now been identified.
DNA tests established it as him.
A children's writer and poet.
Nine months after he died.
His family were finally.
Able to give him.
A funeral.
“Through their chirps.
I seemed to hear.
'Everything will be Ukraine!'.
I believe in victory!”
Source: https://www.koryu-meets-chess.info/
Please read the original story:
Ukraine war: How pathologists identify victims of Russia's invasion — BBC News
Kurama
(Japan)
A POET IN AN AGONISING WAIT
After her turn.
She pauses in the middle of the room.
Hand over her mouth.
Like she's stifling a sob.
Her sister and nephew were killed.
In an ‘orcs’ airstrike.
On their block of flats.
In early March.
They'd been sheltering.
In the basement.
Where they thought.
They'd be safe.
She managed to identify her nephew.
By a tattoo on his arm.
But she has never found her sister.
“She was torn apart in the blast.”
“I can't even find a piece of her.”
She says softly.
“I'm waiting to find even.
A little piece of my sister.”
“So I can bury them both together.”
But the war that created her nightmare.
Is also making the identification process.
Painfully slow.
Izyum police station was destroyed.
So officers have set up an incident room.
At an art college where they collect.
DNA samples.
They call people in one by one.
And gently swab the inside of their cheeks.
The samples are then sent to.
A forensics laboratory.
To extract a DNA profile.
In the hope of.
Finding a genetic match.
With a body at the morgue.
The unidentified remains of some of.
Those killed in Izyum are.
Being kept in a container.
In Kharkiv.
So far, only five bodies from Izyum.
Have been identified using DNA.
The forensics teams admit some are.
So badly damaged they may never be named.
She says a neighbour recently buried.
Seven family members.
Killed in the same attack.
As her nephew and sister.
“He told me that the morning.
After their funerals.
It was like a great weight had been lifted.
And he was finally able to sleep again.”
“I just want to get through that moment.
Then maybe it will be.
Easier for them.
Or for me.”
A couple of hours' drive east in Izyum.
The destruction.
From ‘orcs’ invasion.
Is staggering.
A high-rise block of flats has.
A giant hole blown through.
The middle and all around.
Detached houses have been flattened.
A man up a cherry-picker is.
Repainting a bright mural on.
To a fire-blackened building.
But there are big Zs.
Daubed on a row of.
Garages nearby the tag of.
‘Orcs’ soldiers.
During their seven-month-long occupation.
Living amongst all this are.
The families searching for relatives.
They know were killed but.
Who still have no body to bury.
“He told me that the morning.
After their funerals.
It was like a great weight had been lifted.
And he was finally able to sleep again.”
“I just want to get through that moment.
Then maybe it will be.
Easier for them.
Or for me.”
Source: https://www.koryu-meets-chess.info/
Please read the original story:
Ukraine war: How pathologists identify victims of Russia's invasion — BBC News
Kurama
(Japan)
POETS IDENTIFYING
The unidentified remains of some of.
Those killed in Izyum are.
Being kept in a container.
In Kharkiv.
A pathologist leads the way through.
The dimly lit corridors of his morgue.
Past windows covered with sandbags.
To a large white container in the back yard.
As soon as its heavy metal door.
Is cracked open.
The cloying smell of death.
Rushes out.
Piled inside in white bags.
Are the remains of civilians.
Killed when the town of Izyum was.
Occupied by ‘orcs’ troops.
Many have been dead for months.
The body bags are marked with numbers.
And the barest of details.
Scrawled in black pen.
Weeks after Izyum was liberated.
The remains of 146 people.
Found there have still.
Not been identified.
They're here because the main morgue is.
Overwhelmed with more unidentified bodies.
From ‘orcs’ missile strikes.
And mass graves across the Kharkiv region.
“The number of bodies.
We have right now is really high.
They all remain here.
While DNA tests are done.”
There is a generator now but.
Keeping the container cool is challenging.
During regular power cuts caused by.
‘Orcs’ attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Besides the way people died.
Further complicates the scientists' work:
Many were badly burned.
In shelling and air strikes.
“When there is the maximum.
Degree of burns.
There is almost no.
Genetic material.”
“We send fragments of bone.
But sometimes the experts can't extract.
A genetic sample so they ask for more.
That's why it's so slow.”
When the Kharkiv region was invaded.
Forensics experts were among.
Those fleeing to safety.
“We're training new people.”
“But for now we only.
Have eight people.
In our department.
And the workload's enormous.”
She's a specialist at the laboratory.
Trying to establish genetic profiles.
Of the dead and of those.
Searching for them.
“We also have issues with power cuts.
The high-precision equipment.
Suddenly stops working.
So we have to start all over again.”
“We have a generator.
But there have been times.
When we had no power.
For a whole day.”
And not all the dead have.
Close relatives still in Ukraine.
To provide swabs.
The prosecutor's office has published instructions.
Of how refugees can provide.
Samples abroad.
And send them back for testing.
But few have taken advantage of that.
The unidentified of Izyum.
Were mostly found buried.
In a pine forest.
On the edge of town.
They were taken there.
By volunteer grave diggers.
When Izyum was occupied.
In haste and under fire.
When ‘elves’ forces retook.
The town in September.
The bodies were exhumed.
And moved to Kharkiv.
Police say some died of natural causes.
But many were killed in shelling or explosions.
And 17 showed clear signs of torture.
Including rope around the neck and bound hands.
They've now exhumed.
899 bodies across the region.
“It's very difficult, of course.
We've never seen so many corpses.”
“On average, we're exhuming.
About 10 a day.
And this work isn't over.”
Head of police investigations for Kharkiv region explains.
This week his officers found.
The body of a man.
Killed by a cluster bomb.
And buried in his garden by his wife.
“What happened here.
The crimes ‘Mordor’ committed.
Will never be erased from our memory.
And we will investigate each one of them.”
In total, 451 bodies.
Were found in Izyum.
Including seven children.
Beneath long rows of simple wooden crosses.
Buried in the forest.
In haste and under fire.
Most had no coffin.
Nor even a body bag.
Many also had no name:
The wooden crosses.
On their graves were marked.
Only with numbers.
“What happened here.
The crimes ‘Mordor’ committed.
Will never be erased from our memory.
And we will investigate each one of them.”
Source: https://www.koryu-meets-chess.info/
Please read the original story:
Ukraine war: How pathologists identify victims of Russia's invasion — BBC News
Please read more poems by Kurama about 2022 russian invasion of Ukraine:
"Aware of a poet?
Aware of a poet?
A poet of Cossack broods over the land.
Not noting a bullet.
Not noting a bullet.
You see a poet of Cossack in Borodyanka."
(Kurama)
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Думки українських поетів про рідну країну, їхні відчуття до української землі і нашого народу — все це юні читачі зможуть знайти в представленій добірці віршів про Україну від Ганни Черінь, Юрка Шкрумеляка, Наталки Талиманчук, Іванни Савицької, Уляни Кравченко, Яни Яковенко, Василя Симоненка, Івана Франка, Володимира Сосюри, Катерини Перелісної, Богдана-Ігоря Антонича, Марійки Підгірянки, Миколи Чернявського, Володимира Сіренка, Іванни Блажкевич, Грицька Бойка, Миколи Вінграновського, Платона Воронька, Наталі Забіли, Анатолія Камінчука, Анатолія Качана, Володимира Коломійця, Тамари Коломієць, Ліни Костенко, Андрія Малишка, Андрія М’ястківського, Івана Неходи, Бориса Олійника, Дмитра Павличка, Максима Рильського, Вадима Скомаровського, Сосюра Володимир, Павла Тичини, Петра Осадчука, Варвари Гринько та інших відомих українських поетів.