Large new mass grave seen outside Mariupol
‘RUSSIANS FILLED THEM EVERY DAY THROUGH APRIL’
New satellite images show a mass grave in the Russian-occupied village of Manhush, located about 20 kilometres west of Mariupol, a discovery that Ukrainian officials say is evidence of war crimes against civilians in the strategic port city.
The images, provided by Maxar Technologies, show several rows of graves in four distinct sections, each measuring nearly 85 metres.
The company’s review of the images indicates the new graves appeared between March 23 and March 26 and that there are now more than 200 burial plots alongside an existing cemetery.
The Mariupol City Council said on Telegram that officials believe up to 9,000 civilians could be buried in the mass grave, where authorities said Russians forces “dug new trenches and filled them with corpses every day throughout April.” The council added that it has information indicating the bodies were “buried in several layers.” There was no immediate independent verification available of those claims.
Ukrainian officials believe that at least 20,000 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the invasion — and said the new mass grave appears to be significantly larger than those discovered in Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where civilians were found strewn on streets after Russian troops retreated.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko called the site the “new Babyn Yar,” referring to one the largest mass graves in Europe located in the outskirts of Kyiv, where 33,000 Jews where killed by Nazis in 1941 during the Second World War.
“The biggest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babyn Yar. Then, Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. Now, Putin is destroying Ukrainians,” Boichenko said in the city council’s statement.
There were no immediate comments by Russian officials in response to the discovery.
Boichenko told The Guardian Thursday that Russian trucks had collected corpses from the streets of the port city and transported them to Manhush, in order to hide evidence of what he called “barbaric war crimes.”
The discovery of the Manhush mass grave comes as investigators throughout Ukraine begin the painstaking work of identifying those killed and documenting potential war crimes. Mass graves have been found in numerous cities after Russian forces withdrew from such Kyiv towns as Bordyanka, Vorzel, Moshchun and Makariv.
According to the city council, public authorities had buried about 5,000 people throughout Mariupol by mid-march.
The adviser to Mayor Boichenko accused Russian troops of dumping bodies in plastic bags down an embankment seen in the new satellite images.
“Rage,” he wrote on Telegram. “Nothing but rage.”