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What did Izium's mass grave reveal by 16 September 2022?
Summary
A look back at the security picture on 16 September 2022, as reports emerged of a mass burial site in recaptured Izium and strikes continued on both sides of the border.
What was the security picture on 16 September 2022? It was shaped by the discovery of a mass grave in Izium, a city Ukrainian forces had recently recaptured, and by continued strikes in several regions.
On 15 September 2022, Ukrainian police said a mass grave containing more than 440 bodies had been found in Izium. The discovery came during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. As reported at the time, the site was one of several burial grounds located in woods near the city.
Later accounts describe the graves as holding people killed by Russian forces. They also record the Ukrainian government's belief that more than 1,000 civilians died during the battle for Izium and the subsequent Russian occupation. That wider estimate was not part of the reporting on 15 September 2022.
Strikes across the front and beyond
The day before, on 14 September 2022, Russian forces launched eight cruise missiles at the dam of the Karachunivske reservoir. The strike caused extensive flooding in Kryvyi Rih and raised the water level of the Inhulets River by 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in).
On 16 September 2022 itself, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod Oblast, reported that Ukrainian shelling of Valuyki had killed a civilian and injured two others. Valuyki lies in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, and the report was one of the attacks on western Russia recorded that year.
Taken together, the reports from 14 to 16 September 2022 show three developments: a recaptured city yielding evidence of killings, an attack on water infrastructure that flooded a city, and civilian casualties reported on Russian territory.
