The city of Kherson, liberated at the beginning of November, is rebuilding after the retreat of Russian troops. Among the residents, aid workers and the Ukrainian government officials flocking to the city will be international war crimes investigators, drawn by what Russia has left behind.
As Ukrainian forces recaptured the city, reports emerged of traumatised survivors, torture chambers and mass graves. “So far, 63 bodies [bearing signs of torture] have been discovered throughout the Kherson region, but we must understand that the search has only just begun,” said Ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrsky in a broadcast on 16 November. “Many more places of torture and burial places will be found.”
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The Centre for Information Resilience’s Eyes on Russia team has been monitoring the expansion of several mass graves and gravesites since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The investigation started in March when the investigators noticed reports on social media suggesting an increase in graves being dug and people being buried in a forest close to a cemetery in Chernihiv.
Using satellite imagery, investigators discovered that three large areas had been cleared of trees near an existing burial ground at Yalivshchyna between the end of February and the beginning of March. They counted between 323 and 381 new headstones in these areas.
The researchers also discovered many improvised graves, like this one in a churchyard in Bucha. At least 12 body bags can be seen lying down in the grave. According to authorities, more than 100 people were buried here.
In Russian-occupied areas, many people were unable to bury their loved ones. Researchers located a makeshift grave in a football field here, in Bucha.
Another makeshift grave was spotted outside a kindergarten in Mariupol.
The largest gravesite under investigation is Mariupol’s Starokrymske cemetery. Since the beginning of the war, over 4,600 new graves have been dug here – although it is unclear how many bodies are buried at the site. The number is significantly above pre-war numbers. Using satellite imagery, the investigators estimated that in the five months before the invasion only around 1000 graves were added.
As Russian forces retreat and Ukraine liberates occupied territory, more mass graves are being uncovered. In a forest outside Izyum, a city in the Kharkiv region, a mass grave with over 440 bodies was reportedly discovered in mid-September.
The investigators found a significant increase in graves in Kherson, with an estimated 824 new graves dug in early April. Researcher Nathan Ruser analysed an image to estimate the number of graves in each row, with each row containing 26 graves on average and the smaller row containing 10 graves. Ruser estimates that around 300 of the graves have been filled in, with the rest remaining open.
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