American satellite company Maxar announced that a mass graveyard containing around 200 graves has been detected in Mariupol, one of the port cities of Ukraine, which has been besieged by Russian troops for weeks.
Maxar said that the number of graves increased as of the end of March in the satellite images taken.
NO RESPONSE FROM RUSSIA
Ukrainian local authorities accused Russia of burying civilians killed in Mariupol in these cemeteries. Moscow has not yet responded to the allegations.
Russia announced that it has completely captured Mariupol, one of the port cities of Ukraine, which has been under siege since the beginning of March, except for the Azovstal Iron and Steel Factory. Russian President Vladimir Putin abandons plans to raid the Azovstal plant; instead, he told his soldiers to shut down the facility.
With the fall of Mariupol, all the lands of Ukraine on the Sea of Azov came under Russian control.
Allegedly, the mass grave in question is located near a village called Manhush, about 20 km west of Mariupol. Maxar reported that the area consists of four sections, which are approximately 85 m long strips.
The BBC has not independently verified the footage.
Earlier, the Mariupol City Council issued a statement accusing the Russians of burying the murdered civilians in the same place.
The parliament argued that the Russians dug pits in the area and “used garbage trucks to bring the bodies to the area”. The authorities, who also shared aerial images that they said belonged to the region, claimed that the mass graves were twice the size of the cemetery currently located nearby.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the city.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations made by Ukraine and western countries that Russian troops and top Russian politicians were responsible for the killing of civilians.
THERE WERE SIMILAR IMAGES IN BUCA
Earlier this month, Maxar footage of the town of Bucha outside Kiev showed civilians lying on the ground in the city. The footage was about two weeks before the Russians left the area.
This contradicts Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s defense that the footage, first published by the New York Times on March 19 and confirmed by the BBC, was “staged” after the Russian withdrawal.
Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said at least 300 civilians were killed in the town.