LUGANSK, August 12. /TASS/. The remains of 109 people, killed during hostilities, have been removed from improvised graves in the town of Rubezhnoye, in the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), a member of the interdepartmental working group in charge of searching for the graves of victims of Ukrainian aggression and their identification and for perpetuating their memory, Sergey Belov, told reporters on Friday.
"By now, the remains of 109 people have been recovered. The interdepartmental group keeps working. All these crimes [committed by Ukrainian troops] are being recorded. Forensic examinations are being conducted. The bodies are examined in order to let the relatives eventually obtain the required documents, such as death certificates. Then the bodies are reburied. If relatives wish to rebury the body on their own, then after examination by forensic experts they take it away," the Lugansk Media Center quotes Belov as saying.
The identity of most of the killed civilians has been established, as local people were able to describe the circumstances under which their neighbors lost their lives.
An adviser to the head of the LPR and chief of the interdepartmental working group, Anna Soroka, believes that there may be 1,500 improvised graves in Rubezhnoye, Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Popasnaya, liberated as a result of the special military operation.
"As far as large communities are concerned, we estimate we may find 1,500 improvised graves in Rubezhnoye, Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Popasnaya alone. Last year we were examining 2014 graves, discovered over years. The remains of 292 people were recovered," Soroka said, adding that more than 100 bodies were exhumed in Rubezhnoye over ten days. In 2021, specialists recovered 292 bodies from 2014 burials.
The allied forces of Russia and the LPR had completely cleared the territory of Rubezhnoye of Ukrainian forces by May 13.