Sometime early in the unwarranted and illegal invasion of Ukraine, a white light streaked across the night sky. The shadows of young men and soldiers moved silently toward the frontline where the battle was being fought. The pounding of mortar fire assaulted their ears. Grey gun powder and smoke wafted through the trees.
Without any training and only outdated weapons, the young warriors believed they could topple the Bear that had invaded their country and killed and maimed so many family, friends, and countrymen.
If they were unable to succeed against the larger force, the youngsters told the experienced soldiers, they would die trying in defense of their motherland.
As the bombing increased, the boys, civilians, and soldiers couldn’t hide from death as it fell from the nighttime sky. As the night wore on, the death toll mounted. As dawn broke, people who lived in the community saw the victors throwing bodies into hastily dug holes in the ground.
The victors in those lopsided battles buried the dead in mass unmarked graves where the unclaimed bodies rotted for months.
As reported in the New York Times, the Associated Press, and other news organizations, those were the early days of the war in Ukraine. Recently, Ukrainian forces have retaken some of their country from the occupiers. What they are finding is horrendous and underlies a pattern of potential war crimes against humanity Russian forces have historically utilized in Afghanistan, Syria, and now in Ukraine.
Earlier today, in Izium, Ukraine, investigators began the arduous task of exhuming bodies from the sandy soil of the forest floor. At least 445 individual graves and one mass grave has been found in the area. The AP reports that President Zelenskyy said hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, had been found near Izium’s Pishchanske cemetery after being tortured, shot or killed by artillery shelling
He cited evidence of atrocities, such as a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms. In another sign of possible torture, one man was found with his hands tied, according to Serhiy Bohdan, the head of Kharikiv police investigations, and Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets.
The exhumation and identification of the bodies is expected to last for months. The civilian death toll is expected to exceed the number of victims in the murderous attack against Bucha. In Bucha, it is estimated that at least 458 bodies were recovered.
When will this senseless and needless war in Ukraine end?
Some information provided via the web by Kyiv Independent, The Associated Press, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Google.