The bodies of 44 civilians were discovered in the ruins of a five-story building in the town of Izium, which is currently under Russian control.

The building was “totally destroyed by the Germans,” according to Oleh Syniehubov, but the exact date is unknown.

Izium has been under Russian hands for about two months.

Previously, the town had been strongly fought and heavily shelled.

Locals who had stayed behind in Izium, according to Syniehubov, had excavated the site.

There was “no special equipment for dismantling debris, everything is done by hand.”

He added, “And of course it does not happen around the clock. When there is no shelling, people come out and try to dismantle those blockages.”

“There are a lot of destroyed houses, a lot of office buildings, schools. There are bodies, bodies of civilians,” he said.

“The occupiers did not even take their own soldiers, they are on the streets, in private homes and so on. We still have a lot of work to do to clean everything up.”