USA TODAY International Edition
Mayor says Russians are covering up their ‘ crimes’
The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol claims Russian troops are burying Ukrainian civilians killed in the conflict in order to cover up “military crimes.”
Russians buried hundreds of civilians killed in Manhush, about 12 miles west of Mariupol, in large trenches they had dug, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Thursday.
Boychenko said “the bodies started disappearing from the streets of the city,” charging that the Russians were “hiding the trace of their crimes and using mass graves 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,” he said. “They are hiding their military crimes.”
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor , posted satellite photos to Telegram claiming to show the graves, according to CNN. He said the graves appear about 100 feet deep.
The jarring claim came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted victory in the battle for Mariupol, even as hundreds of Ukrainian troops hold out in and around a sprawling steel plant in the city.
President Joe Biden pushed back on Putin’s claim, saying there isn’t evidence yet of a Russian victory. “It’s questionable whether he does control Mariupol,” Biden said. “There’s no evidence yet that Mariupol has completely fallen.”
Second prisoner exchange conducted in 3 days
Nineteen Ukrainians were released from Russian captivity Thursday in a second prisoner swap this week, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereschuk said on Facebook.
“Today we bring home 19 people, including 10 military ( including 2 officers) and 9 civilians,” she wrote. “This time there are wounded among the fired, and this is very important. Well now they will be able to get full treatment and go through a rehabilitation course.”
The release came two days after 76 Ukrainians, including 60 soldiers, were returned to their families. The number of Russian prisoners in the exchange was not released, but previous exchanges have involved equal numbers of Ukrainians and Russians.
Contributing: John Bacon, Joey Garrison, Michael Collins, Tom Vanden Brook, Celina Tebor and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY; The Associated Press