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Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Ukrainian police on Friday found more than 500 civilian bodies in Kharkiv region, mostly from mass graves in the city of Izium which was liberated of Russian forces in early September, officials said. Yevhen Yenin, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, said in a statement that the bodies of 225 women and 19 children were among the 530 bodies recovered in Kharkiv.
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The allegation was also made by Serhii Bolnivov, head of the investigative department of the regional police, in comments to CNN.
Yenin said that 1,350 civilians have been killed in the Kharkiv province since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and that "this number is increasing almost every day."
He said that many of the bodies recovered Friday showed "signs of a violent death" including gunshot wounds, explosive injuries and signs of torture.
There were allegedly 15 bodies found with a rope around the neck and hands tied behind the back with bullet wounds to the knees and rib fractures.
"In almost all large cities and towns, where military units of the Russian army were based, they set up such places of detention of civilians and prisoners of war and tortured them," Bolvinov told CNN.
He alleged that more than 20 suspected Russian "torture chambers" have been found across Kharkiv as Ukrainian forces swiftly move to liberate the region from Russian occupation.
"We must de-occupy all the lands that the Russian occupiers are trying to keep for themselves," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. "Only in this way can we return the full force to international law."
Zelensky said that, this week alone, Ukraine has liberated 300 square miles of territory in the eastern regions of the country, including 29 settlements.
"There are also good results in the south of Ukraine this week -- we are liberating our land and our people there from the pseudo-referendum every day," Zelensky said.
The British Defense Ministry, which has provided intelligence updates throughout the course of the war, said in a statement Friday that Ukrainians are defeating Russian forces with their own equipment.
"Re-purposed and captured Russian equipment now makes up a large proportion of Ukraine's military hardware," the British Defense Ministry said.
British intelligence shows that Ukraine has likely captured at least 440 Russian main battle tanks, and around 650 other armored vehicles since the invasion.
"The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline," the British Defense Ministry said.
"With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry."
