'These are lies, we misplaced blood': Kremlin's dismissal of mass burials in Ukraine | World News

The Kremlin on Monday denied its forces had been accountable for large-scale killings in east Ukraine and accused Kyiv of fabricating its discoveries of mass graves in recaptured territory.

Within the newest incident spurring fears of an atomic emergency, Ukraine mentioned Russian rockets landed dangerously near a nuclear energy station in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine recaptured Izyum and different cities within the east this month, crippling Kremlin provide routes and bringing recent claims of Russian atrocities with the invention of tons of of graves -- some containing a number of our bodies.

"These are lies," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters on Monday. Moscow, he mentioned, "will arise for the reality on this story".

Combating within the northeast has raged and AFP journalists heard artillery exchanges in frontline Kupiansk on Monday, as traumatised civilians headed out of the city now primarily in Ukrainian palms.

The streets had been strewn with damaged glass, spent cartridge casings and the discarded stays of ration packs issued by each forces.

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Many of the hearth was outgoing, with Ukrainian tanks and artillery concentrating on Russian positions on the west aspect of the city, over a large number of damaged bridges. A column of smoke rose within the distance.

On the entrance to the city, cowering from the sounds of Ukrainian tank shells passing overhead in direction of Russian traces, civilians gathered to hitch rides or be a part of buses to go out into safer Ukrainian territory.

"It was unattainable to remain the place we had been residing," mentioned 56-year-old Lyudmyla, who braved the fixed crack of shells to cross the Oskil river from the disputed east financial institution to the relative security of the west.

"There was incoming hearth not simply day by day, however actually each hour. It's extremely robust there, on the opposite financial institution of the river."

In his handle to the nation on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the Russians had been "panicking" as his forces held recaptured territory within the northeastern Kharkiv area.

'Misplaced a variety of blood'

Russian-backed authorities in east Ukraine mentioned a "punitive" strike by Kyiv's forces had killed greater than a dozen individuals and wounded extra within the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.

The insurgent head of the area claimed the strike was "deliberate" and mentioned it might "not go unpunished".

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A courtroom within the neighbouring rebel-held area of Lugansk in the meantime sentenced two workers of the Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe to 13 years on treason prices.

OSCE chairman Zbigniew Rau condemned the "unjustifiable" detention of the mission's members because the outbreak of the conflict, calling it "nothing however pure political theatre... inhumane and repugnant".

Ukrainian civilians within the Kharkiv area have recounted months of brutality beneath Russian occupation.

In Kupiansk, Mykhailo Chindey informed AFP he had been tortured on suspicion of supplying concentrating on coordinates to Ukrainian forces.

"One individual was holding my hand and one other one was beating my arm with a steel stick. They had been beating me up two hours nearly day by day," he informed AFP.

"I misplaced consciousness in some unspecified time in the future. I misplaced a variety of blood. They hit my heels, again, legs and kidneys."

Ukraine's nuclear vitality company, Energoatom, mentioned Russia struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear energy plant in a single day, with a "highly effective explosion" simply 300 metres (985 toes) from its reactors.

The strike broken greater than 100 home windows on the station, however the reactors weren't broken, Energoatom mentioned, publishing photographs of glass shattered round blown-out frames.

It additionally launched photographs of what it mentioned was a two-metre-deep crater from the place the missile landed. No workers had been wounded, it mentioned.

'Russia endangers the entire world'

Assaults round Ukrainian nuclear services have spurred calls from Kyiv and its Western allies to de-militarise surrounding areas.

Europe's largest atomic facility -- the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine -- has turn into a sizzling spot for considerations after tit-for-tat claims of assaults.

The Mykolaiv area in southern Ukraine, the place the Pivdennoukrainsk plant is situated, is near the entrance line of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Russian forces have continued to shell Ukrainian-held cities close to the entrance traces.

The UN's atomic company deployed a monitoring workforce to the positioning in early September after new combating.

"Russia endangers the entire world. We've to cease it earlier than it is too late," Zelensky mentioned early Monday.

Ukraine will probably be "very excessive on the agenda" when world leaders formally start assembly in New York on Tuesday for the United Nations Basic Meeting, mentioned the European Union's international coverage chief.

"There are numerous different issues, we all know, however the conflict in Ukraine has been sending shockwaves all over the world," Josep Borrell mentioned after assembly EU international ministers on the eve of the UN gathering, which Zelensky is to deal with by video.