Mass graves in Izium: 449 bodies identified and reburied, including 23 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen. PHOTOS
In Izium, Kharkiv region, a memorial service was held for innocent people killed during the occupation. The identification process has been completed, and 449 bodies have been reburied.
This was reported by the Izyum Military Administration, according to Censor.NET.
It is noted that on 9 December, a memorial service was held in Izium for local residents and servicemembers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who in 2022, during the occupation, were brutally killed and tortured by armed formations of the Russian Federation. The occupiers buried the bodies in a wooded area near the cemetery on Shakespeare Street.
The work lasted three years
After the liberation of the city, a long and extremely difficult process began. For three years, the Izium municipal territorial community, together with experts, volunteers and relevant services, carried out the exhumation, identification and reburial of the bodies.
"It was exhausting, emotionally painful but necessary work. It is especially heartbreaking to realise that some of these people no longer have any relatives who could come, identify them or accompany them on their final journey. Some were killed together with their entire families…," the сity military administration said.
It is noted that as of 24 November 2025, this difficult work had been completed: 449 bodies have been identified and reburied, including 23 servicemembers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Mass burial in Izium
- As a reminder, after the liberation of Izium in September 2022, law enforcement officers discovered a mass grave in a forest on the outskirts of the city. According to the regional police, 449 bodies (22 military personnel and civilians, including several children) were removed from it, at least 30 of which showed signs of torture.
- In particular, DNA tests confirmed that the mass grave contained the body of children's writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was shot by the invaders in the spring of 2022.
- On 28 December 2022 it emerged that the head of the Izium branch of the Plast scout organisation, Oleh Yefimenko, had also been buried in the forest. Experts confirmed that he had been tortured.
- In early 2024, the National Police reported that 40 victims from the mass grave could not be identified.
- As of early March 2025, it was reported that 402 people from the mass grave in Izium, Kharkiv region, had been identified, while 46 remained unidentified, 22 of whom were unknown.
