Mass graves have been found; Russians flee to the border
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the northeastern city of Izium has become the latest site where Russians have left mass graves.
Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Ukrainian authorities had found a mass burial site near Izium in the recently recaptured Kharkiv region.
“Unfortunately, Bucha, Mariupol, now, Izium,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address, adding that confirmation is likely to come on Friday. “Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it. The world must hold Russia real responsible for this war.”
The Associated Press said its journalists saw the site in a wooded area outside Izium on Thursday. A mass grave has a marker that says it contains the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. It is surrounded by hundreds of individual graves with only the cross to mark them.
Sergei Bolvinov, a senior investigator for Ukrainian police in the Kharkiv region, told Britain’s Sky News that a pit with more than 440 bodies was found near Izium after the Russians were driven out. He described the tomb as “one of the largest burial grounds in any liberated city.”
Pickup Points During UKRAINE WAR:When Russia concedes defeat in Kharkiv, Ukraine regains land, confidence
Latest developments:
► The Biden administration says it will send an additional $600 million in military aid to Ukraine, trying to step up Kyiv’s counterattack with some of the same weapons that helped defeat Russian forces in the eastern regions. east and south.
► Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not seriously injured when his car was hit by another vehicle early Thursday after a visit to the battlefield, his spokesman said. The driver of the other vehicle was given first aid and taken away by ambulance, the spokesman said.
► Air raid sirens sounded twice in Kyiv while Zelenskyy had a meeting on Thursday with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who reiterated EU support for Ukraine.
►The 35-nation council of governors of the United Nations atomic agency adopted a resolution on Thursday calling on Russia to immediately end its occupation of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, where shelling of the facility and other facilities was carried out. nearby areas in recent weeks have raised fears of a possible radioactive disaster .
►Superstar Guard Stephen Curry of NBA champion Golden State Warriors says “his contacts in the Biden administration refuse an offer of help” efforts to free WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian captivity.
Russians run to the border near Kharkiv
Tensions rose in Russian villages bordering the Kharkiv region on Thursday as the roar of Ukrainian army fire closed in on the border.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said people were injured when Ukrainian shells hit a border village, and private houses, farm buildings and power lines in another village were destroyed. part. Vyacheslav Gladkov also ordered the evacuation of several villages.
Ukraine has recaptured thousands of miles and more than 300 villages and towns this month. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says Russian troops fleeing Ukraine’s advance are massing at the Belgorod border, where other Russian troops are preventing them from crossing.
“They have no communication with the commander,” the ministry said in a statement. “There are no supplies of food and ammunition.”
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, reporting from Belgorod in recent days, has found locals expressing fear and anxiety. One teacher said she told students who heard the rocket that the sound was just thunder.
Some residents fled to Belgorod from villages in Ukraine after working for the Russian authorities – only for the Russians to abandon Ukrainian towns. Now, they fear redemption from the Ukrainian authorities, who see them as traitors.
Biden meets Brittney Griner relative, Paul Whelan at the White House
President Joe Biden will hold private meetings The AP news agency quoted senior administration officials as saying Friday at the White House were relatives of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan security chief executive Paul Whelan.
It will be the first face-to-face contact between the president and family members of two Americans detained in Russia, deemed ‘wrongfully detained’ by the US government.
The Biden administration in July said it had made an “important proposal” to send them home in a prisoner exchange, but those efforts have so far been fruitless.
Griner has been detained in Russia since February on drug-related charges. Last month, she was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and has appealed the punishment. Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence on espionage charges that he and his family say are untrue. Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, visited Moscow this week to discuss their release.
Putin acknowledges China’s ‘concerns’ about war in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged China had “questions and concerns” about Moscow’s war in Ukraine when he met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Thursday in Uzbekistan.
“We appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends regarding the Ukraine crisis,” said Putin, who took the opportunity to hype the West. “We understand your questions and concerns on this matter. ”
Mr. Putin’s rare mention of China’s worries comes as Beijing worries about the impact of volatile oil prices and economic instability caused by a war that has dragged on for nearly seven months and has seen Russia experienced some embarrassing battlefield defeats.
Of China The economy was in recession This year is largely due to strict anti-COVID measures. Russia has sharply increased energy sales to China in recent months as European purchases have fallen because of sanctions.
Xi did not mention Ukraine in his public comments during a meeting on the sidelines of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security alliance created as a counterweight to US influence. The alliance also includes India, Pakistan and four former Soviet states in Central Asia.
Some Russian troops in Kharkiv ‘escape in apparent panic’, UK ministry says
Russia’s retreat from the Kharkiv area, where Ukrainian forces are consolidating their recently captured territory, was in some cases orderly but at other times the troops “clearly fleeing” in panic”, British Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update.
In the process, the Russians left behind valuable equipment “necessary to enable the Russian artillery-focused style of warfare,” the ministry said, concluding that such abandonment illustrates for” local failures in command and control. “
Contribution: Associated Press