A satellite image shows an alleged mass grave in the village of Manhush, outside the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on April 3rd. (2022 Maxar Technologies)
Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday identified the location of apparent mass graves outside the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, allegations backed by the publication of satellite images collected and analyzed by Maxar Technologies.
In a Telegram post on Thursday, Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, wrote:
Andryushchenko – who is not in Mariupol but served as a clearing house for information from inside the besieged city – published the coordinates in the Telegram, saying that Russian forces had dug several mass graves, each measuring about 30 meters (about 100 feet). in Manchus, a town about 12 miles (about 19 kilometers) west of Mariupol.
“Trucks carry the bodies of the dead, in fact they just throw them on the embankment,” he said. “This is direct evidence of war crimes and attempts to cover them up.
Maxar published an analysis of satellite imagery on Tuesday that appears to show evidence of new graves on site at the northwestern tip of Manchus.
An overview of the cemetery and the expansion of the graves can be seen on March 23. (2022 Maxar Technologies)
“According to recent media reports, Russian soldiers transported the bodies of people killed in Mariupol to this place,” Maxar said in his analysis. “A review of our satellite images from mid-March to mid-April shows that the expansion of the new set of graves began between March 23-26, 2022 and has continued to expand over the past few weeks. The graves are lined up in four sections of linear rows (measuring approximately 85 meters per section) and contain more than 200 new graves. ”
Vadim Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, also claimed on Thursday that Russian forces had buried bodies in mass graves in Manhush, amid claims by Ukrainian authorities that about 20,000 people had died in the weeks of the bombing.
“More than 20,000 civilians – women, children, the elderly – died on the streets of our city from enemy artillery, planes,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then [based] according to the testimony of the heads of our municipal services who saw him. And unfortunately, we saw that the bodies of the dead Mariupol residents began to disappear from the streets of our city. ”
Boychenko said the mass graves were off a bypass road, near a cemetery.
“And there’s a field near the cemetery, and in that field there are ditches 30 meters long (about 90 feet) and they bury them there, bring the bodies of the dead by truck and throw them in those ditches,” he said.
CNN cannot independently verify allegations that Russians dumped bodies in mass graves at the site, and the exact number of dead after weeks of heavy bombing in Mariupol is not available. Journalists in Mariupol documented the hasty burial of civilians in the besieged city, and images appeared on social media showing bodies apparently left to be collected in the city.
Evidence of mass graves outside Mariupol emerged when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “liberation” of the city from Russian forces, although he also canceled an attempt to storm the Azovstal steel plant, the last bastion of Ukrainian defenders in the city, where civilians also sheltered. .
“Unfortunately, it is not possible today to evacuate civilians from Azovstal,” Boychenko said. “Because we want a steady ceasefire. We need one day somewhere to be able to accommodate those residents who have been hiding there for 57 days in a row and bombing, bombing and bombing them. “
Boychenko estimates that about 100,000 people remain in Mariupol.
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