Ukraine’s Mariupol Mayor has accused the Russian forces of hiding evidence of its “barbaric” war crimes in the strategic port city after new satellite images showed a mass burial site in the Russian-occupied village of Manhush, located about 12 miles (19km) west of Mariupol.
The mayor, Vadym Boichenko, was basing his allegation on the satellite images released by the Maxar on late Thursday, showing about 200 graves near an existing cemetery that had been expanded in recent weeks.
The US company’s images indicated that the new graves appeared between March 23 and March 26, The Washington Post reported.
“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.
“We need to do everything we can to stop the genocide,” the newspaper quoted Boichenko as saying.
The Mariupol City Council in a statement on Telegram said that around 9,000 civilians are expected to be buried in the mass grave, claiming that the Russians forces “dug new trenches and filled them with corpses every day throughout April.”
The council further claimed that it has information indicating the bodies were “buried in several layers.”
The mayor claimed that more than 20,000 Mariupol residents had been killed since Russian forces began attacking the city during the early days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Most bodies had now been removed, he said, with some disposed of in mobile crematoriums.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the besieged Mariupol city has been “successfully liberated”.
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Putin hailed the “liberation” after his defence minister said that Moscow controls the city apart from the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian soldiers remain. “
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The Russian president has asked his troops not to storm the Azovstal steel plant, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city, but to block it so no one can escape.
Putin told Shoigu, in remarks broadcast on state television: “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground.”
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(With inputs from agencies)
