Ukraine Interior Ministry: 63 bodies of torture victims found in liberated areas of Kherson region

A total of 63 dead bodies with signs of torture have been found in the liberated areas of Ukraine’s Kherson region, as per Denys Monastyrsky, the country’s Interior Minister.

“We have found 63 bodies in the region of Kherson so far, but the search has only started, so many more torture chambers and burial sites are expected to be uncovered,” he said. The exhumation of the bodies is on at the moment, Monastyrsky says.

The law enforcers have initiated criminal proceedings on 436 cases of war crimes. A total of 11 confinement facilities have been detected, torture was used in four of those, he says.

Monastyrsky also spoke about the operation on detecting collaborators. A total of 16 road checkpoints are currently in operation in the Kherson region used to check people’s ties with the occupation “authorities”.

“We have checked 763 individuals so far, five were detained, suspected of collaborationism. The Security Service is currently working with them, with the help of polygraph examiners. We understand that most of the collaborators left for the east bank with the Russian troops, but many have stayed. We have lists of those who collaborated with the occupants and helped them; those lists have been distributed to the road checkpoints in the region, so people are being checked thoroughly,” Suspilne quotes the Interior Minister.

Ukraine’s army regained control over Kherson on 11 November. The Russian army reported leaving the city earlier, following an order from the country’s Defence Minister Shoigu.

Ukraine’s bodies of power resumed operation in Kherson the following day. Around 200 policemen started working in Kherson back then, setting up security checkpoints around the city and taking records of the crimes committed by Russian occupation “authorities”.