New satellite images appear to show expansion of mass graves near the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol which the city council claims could hold as many as 9,000 bodies.
Maxar Technologies released five photographs dated between March 19 and April 3, which show large pits progressively dug along the lower side of a road in Manhush, a municipality more than 10 miles outside of Mariupol.
"The occupying forces have dug ... a number of mass graves," said Petro Andrushenko, spokesman for Mayor Vadym Boychenko, on his Telegram account. "Each grave measures 100 feet wide and 100 feet long. Russians are using trucks to deliver the bodies. Then, they simply dump them, a couple at a time."
The Associated Press quoted the city council saying as many as 9,000 could be buried at the site, and Boychenko on his Telegram account called it "the new Babi Yar" -- a reference to a site near Kyiv where the Germans massacred more than 33,000 during World War II.
“The worst crime of the 21st century in Mariupol. This is the new Babi Yar," Boychenko wrote. "Then, Hitler killed Jews, Romas, Slavs. Now, [Vladimir] Putin is killing murdering Ukrainians. He already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol. We need a powerful response from the civilised world to do anything possible to spot this genocide”
Three photographs published on Radio Svoboda's website appear to show the same area dated from March 23 to April 9, the first showing a plain field, the second with a 1,000-foot-long by 30-foot-wide trench, and the last with a widening of the trench in progress.
"It's getting warmer now," Andrushenko wrote. "You understand what happens to corpses when it's warm. They must've begun dropping them off at the end of March. I can't even imagine how many bodies. Must be thousands. At least we know where some of our citizens are buried."
According to the most modest reports, there are more than 5,000 dead civilians in Mariupol.
Andrushenko also claims that officials in areas where Russia has already seized are restricting who can be buried.
"To receive any documentation on the death of loved ones in Mariupol, citizens must report all available information on the deceased, place they were buried and passport details," he wrote. "Only if all that information is given do residents receive a certificate of death and receive the 'right' to bury someone at a proper cemetery."
The images have sparked fears of comparisons to Bucha, the city near the capital of Kyiv where Russian forces withdrew from earlier this month leaving behind burned and mutilated corpses.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.