As the second month of the Russia-Ukraine war was about to enter, Russian troops had announced the previous day that they had completely taken control of the strategically important port city of Mariupol in Ukraine. An expanding mass grave site has been discovered in shared satellite images of the Ukrainian city of Mairupol, where all that remains is a steel mill where thousands of civilians and soldiers have taken shelter.
NEARLY 9 THOUSAND BODY
According to the claim of the US-based satellite company Maxar, a mass graveyard with around 200 graves has been detected in Mariupol. It was noted that the number of graves increased as of the end of March. Local Ukrainian officials accuse the Russians of burying Mariupol civilians killed by Russian troops there. Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko stated that the Russians may have buried up to 9,000 bodies in mass graves.
MOSCOW DID NOT ANSWER
Moscow, which has repeatedly denied accusations by Ukraine and its Western allies that Russian troops and senior Kremlin politicians were responsible for the mass killings of civilians, has yet to respond to the allegations.
The alleged mass grave is near a village called Manhush, about 20km west of Mariupol. Maxar said there are four sections of linear rows about 85m long.
UKRAINIAN UNITS STILL FACTORY
Russian troops control most of Mariupol after weeks of shelling and fighting, but some Ukrainian forces are still at a steelworks in the city. President Putin abandoned plans to raid the Azovstal facility and instead told the soldiers to close the facility.
war crime
The United Nations (UN) has warned that Russia’s activities in Ukraine could constitute a “war crime”. It was also frequently mentioned in the world press that Russian troops indiscriminately bombarded many civilian areas, killed civilians, and damaged many civilian infrastructures such as hospitals and schools. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office claimed that the Russian army also used Ukrainian children in the war.