When Ukrainian forces retook the town of Balakliia, it happened so quickly that Russian troops had to leave behind a lot of military equipment and vehicles.
Ashley Westerman/NPR
There's also the task of assessing the extent of the death toll during the area's six months of occupation. Officials say they've found the bodies of five Ukrainian civilians in Balakliia, but they suspect there are more. At least two of those are of men who are thought to have been shot by Russian soldiers while driving through a checkpoint. Their bodies were buried in makeshift graves near the center of town and have now been exhumed for further investigation.
"We'll try to do whatever is possible to register all of the war crimes committed by Russian forces," Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, told reporters.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands with soldiers after attending a national flag-raising ceremony in Izium, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Zelenskyy thanked soldiers for their efforts in retaking the area, as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall building.
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