NBC News
Life, Death, and Liberation: Izium, Ukraine
NBC News documentary — an NBC team spent weeks inside the bombed-out city of Izium hearing the stories of those who survived Russian occupation, torture, and relentless bombardment.
After Ukrainian forces liberated Izium in September 2022, investigators exhumed hundreds of bodies — many civilians, some showing signs of torture — from a forest gravesite, and uncovered Russian torture chambers in the city’s prison.
McLaughlin reported from Izium through the mass-grave exhumations and returned with an NBC team for this documentary, spending weeks inside the city recording the testimony of those who lived through the occupation.
Why it mattered
Weeks-long reporting inside one of the cities most devastated by the war, documenting survivor testimony after mass graves and torture chambers were discovered following the Russian retreat.
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