Kremlin dismisses mass graves in Ukraine as ‘lies’

Russia is facing fresh claims of atrocities after Ukrainian forces recaptured Izyum and other towns in the east.

Rescue workers carry bodies from unidentified makeshift graves at the eastern Ukraine town of Izyum. Picture: Getty Images

The Kremlin denies its forces are responsible for large-scale killings in east Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of fabricating its discoveries of mass graves in recaptured territory.

In the latest incident spurring fears of an atomic emergency, Ukraine said that Russian rockets landed precariously close to a ­nuclear power station in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine recaptured Izyum and other towns in the east last week, crippling Kremlin supply routes and bringing fresh claims of Russian atrocities with the discovery of hundreds of graves – some containing multiple bodies.

“These are lies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said overnight on Monday. Moscow, he said, “will stand up for the truth in this story.”

Fighting in the northeast continues to rage, with artillery exchanges heard in frontline Kupiansk on Monday, as traumatised civilians headed out of the town now mainly in Ukrainian hands.

The streets were strewn with broken glass, spent cartridge casings and the discarded remains of ration packs issued by both forces.

Ukrainian soldiers on an armoured vehicle in the Kharkiv region. Picture: AFP

Most of the fire is outgoing, with Ukrainian tanks and artillery targeting Russian positions on the west side of the town, over a mess of broken bridges.

At the entrance to the town, cowering from the sounds of Ukrainian tank shells passing overhead towards Russian lines, civilians gathered to hitch rides or join buses to head out into safer Ukrainian territory.

In his address to the nation on Monday, Ukrainian President ­Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians were “panicking” as his forces hold recaptured territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Russian-backed authorities in east Ukraine said a “punitive” strike by Kyiv’s forces had killed more than a dozen people and wounded more in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.

The rebel head of the region claimed the strike was “deliberate” and said it would “not go unpunished.”

A court in the neighbouring rebel-held region of Luhansk meanwhile sentenced two workers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to 13 years on treason charges.

OSCE chairman Zbigniew Rau condemned the “unjustifiable” detention of the mission’s members since the outbreak of the war, calling it “nothing but pure political theatre … inhumane and repugnant”.

Ukrainian civilians in the Kharkiv region have recounted months of brutality under Russian occupation.

In Kupiansk, resident Mykhailo Chindey said he had been tortured on suspicion of supplying targeting co-ordinates to Ukrainian forces.

“One person was holding my hand and another one was beating my arm with a metal stick. They were beating me up two hours ­almost every day,” he said.

“I lost consciousness at some point. I lost a lot of blood. They hit my heels, back, legs and kidneys.”

Residents evacuate Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region, as clashes continued between Russian and Ukrainian forces on Monday. Picture: AFP

Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, said Russia struck the Pivdennoukrainsk power plant overnight, with a “powerful explosion” just 300m from its reactors.

The strike damaged more than 100 windows at the station, but the reactors were not damaged, Energoatom said, publishing photos of glass shattered around blown-out frames. It also released images of what it said was a 2m-deep crater from where the missile landed. No staff were wounded, it said.

Attacks around nuclear plants have spurred calls from Ukraine and its Western allies to demilitarise surrounding areas.

Europe’s largest atomic centre, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine, has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks. The UN’s atomic agency ­deployed a monitoring team to the site earlier this month after new fighting.

“Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it’s too late,” Mr Zelensky said early on Monday.

The Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, where the Pivdennoukrainsk plant is located, is close to the frontline of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Kyiv’s forces have clawed back territory near Mykolaiv, nearing the strategically important hub of Kherson. Russian forces have continued to shell Ukrainian-held towns near the frontlines.

AFP