"Tomorrow, Ukrainian and international journalists will be in Izium. We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to. Bucha, Mariupol, and now, unfortunately, Izium. Russia leaves death in its wake everywhere. And it must be held accountable for this. The world must hold Russia accountable for this war. We will do everything for this," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address on September 15, 2022.

Mass graves near Izium were found on September 15, 2022, after the liberation. The city was under occupation for 5 months.

According to official data from the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration 447 bodies were found:

• 414 bodies of civilians (194 men, 215 women, 5 children);
• 22 military personnel;
• 11 bodies of unidentified gender, most of them were killed violently;
• 30 bodies with obvious signs of torture.

The liberation of the town of Izium by the Ukrainian military on September 10, 2022, was part of a blitzkrieg by the Armed Forces of Ukraine into the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region.

Ukraine turned the tide of the war in its favor, and the return of strategically important Izium from a logistical point of view ended the prospect of Russia's rapid capture of the entire Donetsk region

* according to the official data of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration