THE FOOLISH BUSINESS OF WAR.

• Date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Boddiger, David
• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Boddiger, David

Six months after the city of Izium, in northeastern Ukraine, was liberated from Russian invaders, life remains a living hell for those who survived. "Behind closed doors, survivors wait in agony for the bodies of loved ones to be identified," writes the Associated Press's Samya Kullab. It was here that one of several mass graves was discovered during the war, which has entered its second year, in a pine forest near a town now known as the "city of the dead."

After Izium was liberated by Ukrainian forces last September, 447 bodies were discovered there, most of them civilians, some of them children, and dozens with signs of torture. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy likened the grisly discovery to other mass killings committed by Russian troops, such as those in the cities of Bucha and Mariupol.

Today, with more than 100 bodies still unidentified, and an estimated 80 percent of residential buildings destroyed in Izium, the survivors must carefully navigate terrain that is still riddled with land mines. "Everyone has a mine...