Mariupol city council said in a statement on Telegram that officials believed that up to 9,000 civilians could be buried in the mass grave, where authorities said Russian forces had “dug new trenches and filled them with bodies every day throughout April”. The council added that it had information indicating that the bodies were “buried in multiple layers.” There was no immediate independent verification available of these allegations.
Mariupol, a strategic port city, is a major focal point for Russian forces hoping to secure a land route to Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukrainian officials say at least 20,000 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the invasion – and that the new mass grave appears much larger than the one discovered in Bush, the Kyiv suburb where civilians were found strewn in the streets after Russian forces retreated.
This discovery brought immediate condemnation from Ukrainian officials and once again emphasized the mounting, often hidden, losses of the war. Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko named the site “New Babin Yar,” referring to one of Europe’s largest mass graves located on the outskirts of Kyiv, where the Nazis killed 33,000 Jews in 1941 during World War II.
The largest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babin Yar. Then Hitler killed Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. In a city council statement, Boychenko said that Putin is now destroying Ukrainians. “We need to do everything we can to stop the genocide.”
Petro Andryushenko, Boychenko’s advisor, wrote about his book Facebook Page said the photos reflected “the full scope of the Mariupol tragedy, the brutality of the Russians,” and amounted to “direct evidence of war crimes and attempts to cover them up.”
There was no immediate comment from Russian officials in response to the discovery.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday, declared victory in the stricken city — even as his advisers acknowledged that thousands of Ukrainian fighters were still hiding in a steel mill there, along with hundreds of civilians. Again and again the last defenders of Mariupol male meIn recent days they will not surrender their weapons, vowing to fight to the end – but Ukrainian officials have admitted that they control only a small part of the city.
Mayor Boichenko . said Watchman On Thursday, Russian trucks collected the bodies from the streets of the coastal city and transported them to Manchu to conceal evidence of what he called “barbarian war crimes”.
He said, “The invaders are hiding evidence of their crimes.” The cemetery is located near a gas station on the left side of a circular road. The Russians dug huge trenches 30 meters wide. They are throwing people.”
The discovery of the Manchu mass grave comes as investigators across Ukraine begin the hard work of identifying the dead and documenting potential war crimes. Mass graves were found in many cities after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv towns; Reporters She documented cases of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, torture and summary executions in Burdianka, Forzel, Moshon and Makarev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the devastation in Mariupol may be on a significantly larger scale as intense bombing has destroyed buildings and left trapped civilians without basic necessities such as food and water. Efforts to evacuate about 120,000 people still there have repeatedly failed – although Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that dozens managed to escape in a convoy of buses and private vehicles.
In a speech Thursday, Zelensky accused the Russians of working to cover up atrocities as they tighten their grip on the city. He claimed that Russian forces used a mobile crematorium to destroy the bodies, making it impossible to know the number of dead. He did not provide further details and the claim could not be independently verified.
According to the city council, public authorities had buried about 5,000 people across the stricken city of Mariupol by mid-March.
“The occupiers drew conclusions from the world’s reaction to the Bucha massacre,” Zelensky said. Now the Russians are trying to hide the traces of war crimes.
Andriyushenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, accused Russian forces of dumping bodies in plastic bags under a bridge seen in new satellite images. He said the total length of the plot added was about 1,000 feet – making it several times longer than the 45-foot-high Bucha mass grave where 70 people were found.
is “anger” wrote on Telegram. “Nothing but anger.”
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