Ukrainian family pleads for justice in exhuming remains

VYSOKOPILLIA: Tamila Pehyda, a retired school teacher, looked on in tears as gravediggers exhumed her husband's remains, and a forensic pathologist examined them to determine the cause of death.

As suspected, Serhiy, who was 70 when he died in the southern Ukrainian village of Vysokopillia in June, was killed by shrapnel during heavy artillery shelling as Ukraine tried to recapture territory from the Russians.

Ukrainian authorities are gathering evidence of how many people died and whether potential war crimes have been committed by Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, according to the grisly process.

They want to hold Russia accountable for what happened since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Tamila told Reuters on Monday that they had to be responsible for everything, both morally and physically. How much grief they have brought here. To children, to grandchildren. Like many Ukrainians from villages and towns that have been largely flattened in artillery exchanges and close combat, she fled to Vysokopillia when she could. So did Tetiana Muzychko, 58, deputy head of the local municipality who ran to Serhiy's house when she heard loud blasts. She said he was conscious when she found him, but the injuries to his legs and lower body were so severe that he died.

She said the wounds were incompatible with life, as she comforted Tamila on a cold, sunless day.

Snow powdered hastily dug graves where Muzychko said more than 20 villagers killed in the fighting were likely buried.

They Russian forces said : Why are you shooting at us? We came to free you. Why do we live better than you? She said she hoped that Russia would be held accountable for alleged abuses during the war, including by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

They must answer for everything they have done. Moscow has denied that it has targeted civilians, and has rejected accusations of war crimes. Hundreds of thousands of people - both combatants and civilians - have been killed in the fighting.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine in a special operation in order to degrade its southern neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists. Kyiv dissented from this justification as a sham.

Tamila was to bury her husband in a permanent grave. She put Serhiy's hat, glasses and comb in the coffin before his remains were interred, according to tradition.