By Aaron Miller-
Satellite imagery from near the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol seems to support disturbing claims from The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol that Russian troops have buried as many as 9,000 civilians killed in the conflict in a nearby mass grave in order to cover up “military crimes.”
Boychenko and the city council in Mariupol accused Russians of burying civilians killed in Manhush, about 12 miles west of Mariupol in large trenches they had dug.
The Ukranian Mayor told reporters: “the bodies started disappearing from the streets of the city,” charging that the Russians were “hiding the trace of their crimes and using the mass grave as one of the instruments for that.”
“Then Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” Boychenko said. “This requires a strong reaction from the entire world. We need to stop the genocide by any means possible.”
The same day Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted victory in the battle for Mariupol, even as hundreds of Ukrainian troops hold out in and around a sprawling steel plant in the city.
Instead of attack, Putin directed his forces to seal off the Azovstal plant “so that not even a fly comes through”.
Russian forces appear to be in control of the rest of the strategic southern city, including Mariupol’s vital, but now badly damaged, port. An estimated 2,000 Ukrainian troops by Moscow’s estimate, have held out for weeks at the sprawling steel plant despite constant bombing by Russian forces and repeated demands for them to surrender. About 1,000 civilians are also trapped in the plant, according to Ukrainian officials.
Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, said on Thursday that a review of images from mid-March through to mid-April indicates that expansion of the mass grave began between March 23 and 26, believed to contain the bodies of Ukranian soldiers buried
“The greatest war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babi Yar,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said, referring to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
The City Council stressed that by mid-March, city services had buried about 5,000 people in various parts of Mariupol and its suburbs.
According to tentative estimates, the total number of those killed by the Russian army in Mariupol amounts to 22,000.
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor who is not currently in the city, posted satellite photos to Telegram claiming to show the growing mass grave, according to CNN. He said the graves appear about 100 feet deep. The accuracy of these claims and images could not be immediately verified.
The jarring claim came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted victory in the battle for Mariupol, even as hundreds of Ukrainian troops hold out in and around a sprawling steel plant in the city.
President Joe Biden pushed back on Putin’s claim, saying there isn’t evidence yet of a Russian victory. “It’s questionable whether he does control Mariupol,” Biden said. “There’s no evidence yet that Mariupol has completely fallen.”