A Ukrainian official said on Tuesday, 10 May, that the bodies of 44 civilians were found in the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian forces in March in Izyum.
Izyum, considered as the gateway to the Donbas region in the eastern part of the country and through there to the Black Sea, was a fierce battleground in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before being captured by the Russian troops on 1 April.
Thousands of civilians became trapped in the city. More than 80 percent of the buildings had been destroyed.
Conquering the city took around three weeks.
"For almost three weeks they couldn’t take over the southern part. There were numerous attempts from the Russian invaders to build temporary bridges over the river, but our defenders destroyed them. After countless attempts, they managed to cross the river, besiege the city and, after a week, gain control of the southern part," said the city's mayor, Valerii Marchenko, as reported by The Guardian.
Last week, Ukrainian officials announced that they had targeted a key Russian command centre in Izyum, taking around 200 Russian troops, including Major General Andrei Simonov.
They added that they had just missed taking out the chief of the general staff of the Russian military, General Valery Gerasimov.
(With inputs from AP and The Guardian.)
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