Mariupol’s city council reported that Russia’s troops buried between 3,000 and 9,000 Ukrainian civilians in a mass grave in the village of Mangush near Mariupol, and the mayor of the besieged port city said the Russians were covering up “military crimes.”
“In the village of Mangush, the occupiers could bury between 3,000 and 9,000 Mariupol residents. This is indicated by a comparison with satellite photos of the burial in Bucha, where 70 people were found [after a mass grave was] dug and filled with corpses every day throughout April. Our sources say that in such graves the bodies are placed in several layers,” the council said according to state-run Ukrinform news agency.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that the Russians buried hundreds of civilians outside Mariupol, accusing Moscow’s forces of “hiding the trace of their crimes and using mass graces as one of the instruments for that.”
“They are taking the bodies of the dead residents of Mariupol in trucks and throw them into those trenches. They are hiding their military crimes,” he said.
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Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, published on Tuesday images and analysis saying it showed evidence of new mass graves at the location Ukraine’s officials identified the mass grave.
“According to recent media reports, Russian soldiers have been taking the bodies of people killed in Mariupol to this location,” Maxar said in its analysis.
“A review of our satellite images from mid-March through mid-April indicate that the expansion of the new set of graves began between March 23-26, 2022, and has continued to expand over the past couple of weeks. The graves are aligned in four sections of linear rows (measuring approximately 85 meters per section) and contain more than 200 new graves.”
Read more:
Russian President Putin hails ‘liberation’ of Ukraine’s Mariupol
Ukraine: Ready for special negotiations with Russia in Mariupol without conditions
Zelenskyy says Ukraine army unable to unblock Mariupol’s siege by Russia without help
