Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the northeastern city of Izium had become the latest site of mass graves left by Russians.
Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukrainian authorities had discovered a massive cemetery near Izium in the Kharkiv region recently occupied by Russian troops.
“Butcha, Mariupol, and now, unfortunately, Izium,” Zelensky said in his nightly televised address, adding that confirmation could come on Friday. “Russia is dying everywhere. It has to be responsible for that. The world has to hold Russia really responsible for this war.”
The Associated Press reported that its reporters saw the site on Thursday in a forest outside Izium. A mass grave has a marker that says the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. There are hundreds of individual graves around it, only crosses to mark them.
The turning point of the war in Ukraine:Ukraine to regain state and confidence if Russia admits defeat in Kharkiv
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► The 35-nation Board of Governors of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday passed a resolution calling on Russia to immediately end its occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, where shelling of the facility and nearby areas in recent weeks has heightened concerns about the possibility Fears of a radiation disaster that occurred.
►Superstar guard Stephen Curry of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors said his “contacts in the Biden administration refused to help” efforts to free WNBA star Britney Greenner from Russian captivity.
Russians flee to border near Kharkiv
Tensions were escalating in Russian villages bordering the Kharkiv region on Thursday as the roar of fire from Ukrainian troops gradually approached the border.
Residents were injured when Ukrainian shells hit a border village, while private homes, farmhouses and power lines were partially destroyed in another village, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said. Vyacheslav Gladkov also ordered the evacuation of several villages.
Ukraine took back thousands of miles and more than 300 villages and towns this month. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Russian troops fleeing the Ukrainian advance were massing on the Belgorod border, where other Russian troops prevented them from crossing.
“They have no contact with the command,” the ministry said in a statement. “There is no food or ammunition available.”
Some residents fled from Ukrainian villages to Belgorod after working for the Russian government – only for Russians to abandon Ukrainian towns. Now they fear reprisals from being seen as traitors by the Ukrainian authorities.
Biden to meet relatives of Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan at White House
It will be the first face-to-face contact between the president and the families of two Americans captured by Russia who the U.S. government believes are “wrongly detained.”
The Biden administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to send them home in a prisoner swap, but those efforts have so far proved futile.
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 was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage-related charges he and his family said were false. Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited Moscow this week to discuss their release.
Putin admits China’s ‘concerns’ over Ukraine war
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged China’s “questions and concerns” about Moscow’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan on Thursday.
“We highly appreciate the balanced stance of our Chinese friends in the Ukraine crisis,” Putin said, taking the opportunity to attack the West. “We understand your questions and concerns in this regard.”
Putin’s rare reference to China’s concerns comes as Beijing has been concerned about the impact of oil price volatility and economic uncertainty from a nearly seven-month-old war that has seen Russia endure some embarrassing battlefield setbacks.
Xi made no mention of Ukraine in his public comments on the sidelines of a meeting of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security alliance formed to counteract U.S. influence. The alliance also includes India, Pakistan and four former Soviet states in Central Asia.
Some Russian troops based in Kharkiv ‘fleeing in apparent panic’, UK Foreign Office says
Russia retreats from Kharkiv region, Ukrainian troops have been consolidating their recently recaptured territory, in some cases orderly, but at other times troops ‘fleeing in apparent panic’, UK MoD said in an intelligence update.
In the process, the Russians have left behind valuable equipment “critical to the realization of Russia’s artillery-centric approach to warfare,” the ministry said, concluding that the abandonment illustrates “a partiality of command and control.” Fault”.
Contributed by: Associated Press