Adam Zivo: Canada should expel Russian ambassador after he lied about Izyum mass grave

Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov is publicly claiming that reports of a mass grave in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Izyum are “lies” and a “monstrous provocation” by Ukraine. Stepanov’s comments contradict everything witnessed by journalists on the scene and constitute an assault on truth and basic human dignity. Canada should respond by expelling him.

Izyum is a town in the Kharkiv region with a prewar population of 46,000, though, back in April, Ukrainian officials estimated that only 10,000 to 15,000 remained. After it was liberated earlier this month, a mass grave containing 440 bodies was found.

The Izyum situation mirrors what was witnessed in Bucha — a region north of Kyiv that was liberated in April and where over 400 bodies were discovered. In both cases, many of the bodies showed signs that they had been summarily executed, with their hands tied behind their backs.

In Izyum, exhumations and investigations are ongoing, but, according to local officials, some of the deaths were caused by Russian artillery or airstrikes, whereas other bodies suggest murder or torture. For example, one body was found crushed testicles and traces of torture on the inner thighs.

Ukraine has requested that international investigators conduct an independent review of the site.

In a statement released shortly after the mass grave was discovered, Stepanov said that the reports about Izyum were lies designed to “stage ‘Bucha’ in a new way,” and to “try to mobilize a certain part of the western public on the Ukrainian topic.”

In April, Russia accused Ukraine of staging the Bucha massacre and producing “fake” footage, claiming not only that it did nothing wrong, but that it was actually delivering humanitarian aid to the region. Using the same playbook in Izyum, some Russian disinformation agents claim that Russia merely provided dignified burials to deceased Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies were abandoned.

Just as in Bucha, attempts to deny Russian war crimes in Izyum are an insult to justice. Reporters who are on the ground, representing a wide variety of nations and unaffiliated media outlets, have refuted Russian claims again and again, and yet Russia keeps shamelessly lying.

I am not currently in Izyum, so I contacted two journalists who have spent the past week there.

American reporter Sarah Ashton-Cirillo said she personally observed exhumed bodies in civilians clothes with their hands restrained behind their backs, and bodies that showed clear signs of torture, such as blunt trauma wounds. She said that any suggestions that these graves were fake or staged were ludicrous — the bodies had obviously been there for at least several weeks.

“I have seen liquefied bodies. I have seen mummified bodies. The Russian ambassador would be welcome to stand where I stood, smell what I smelled and then make the statement he made,” she said.

In case Russia should try to claim ignorance of these graves, Ashton-Cirillo emphasized that she had toured a Russian military compound approximately 60 metres from the site. “They lived and worked next to this mass grave. I saw it. I know it,” she said.

Meanwhile, British journalist Liz Cookman, who also witnessed signs of summary execution among bodies exhumed from the mass graves, similarly disputes Russia’s claims that it merely provided dignified burials to abandoned combatant corpses.

According to the locals she interviewed, Russian troops scoured the town for civilian bodies that had already been buried elsewhere, such as in residents’ gardens, and forcibly exhumed and dumped them in the mass grave, even against the will of victims’ families.

“The idea that they were given some kind of dignity doesn’t tally with what I saw,” said Cookman.

The exact motivations for these reburials are unclear, but locals told Cookman they believed the Russians may have been trying to hide the extent of the deaths in the area. If Russia’s claims are true and the mass grave represented Russian benevolence, presumably this would be reflected in local residents’ attitudes or beliefs. I asked Ashton-Cirillo and Cookman how locals felt about the Russian occupation. The answer: terror.

According to Cookman, locals often said that friends or loved ones had disappeared or been tortured. Ashton-Cirillo interviewed locals who hid in their homes as much as possible, hoping to avoid running into Russian troops who were known to arbitrarily torment civilians. Both reporters had visited Russian torture chambers where bloodstains were still visible.

Cookman found Russian claims about Izyum being “fake” completely implausible. “They’d have to bring in a lot of rotting bodies. I’m not sure how they would manage that without anyone locally seeing it,” she said.

Despite a lack of plausibility, Russian officials continue to spread lies, because, no matter how outrageous they may be, the very need to refute them sows doubt. This point was noted by Mariia Ulianovska, a documentary filmmaker who produced films in Bucha for NBC last spring. Ulianovska said that when people are presented competing narratives, they often don’t know who to believe and simply decide not to pick sides. Thus, blatant lies can push people into disengagement and neutrality.

Ulianovska was in Bucha within a day or two of its liberation. The bodies she saw there had obviously been rotting or buried for a while. She was perplexed by how anyone could believe that Ukraine staged a massacre when dozens of international journalists had immediate access to the area. I share this sentiment, having also visited Bucha in the spring and interviewed civilians who testified to the terrors of Russian occupation.

In Bucha, Ulianovska met a mother whose son had been murdered by the Russians. The mother screamed, “Tell the truth to the whole world. I want the whole world to know, to see what they’ve done here. These people brought us this so-called Russian world and this is what the Russian world means.”

If we are to honour the truth, we must not tolerate those who would deny atrocities through unconscionable lies. Expelling Stepanov would be a good gesture towards that.

National Post

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