Hundreds of freshly dug graves have surfaced at a mass grave site near the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as the death toll from the Russian siege continues to mount.
About 1,500 new pits have appeared in satellite images taken between late June and mid-October of Staryi Krym, about five miles from central Mariupol.
Witnesses say Russian soldiers now occupying Mariupol have spent the past few months removing the remains of Ukrainians from their bombed-out homes to bury them.
Kyiv now believes at least 25,000 civilians perished in the months-long Russian siege of Mariupol – during which people were forced to drink water from radiators to survive.
The satellite imagery was collected by technology company Maxar and analyzed by experts on behalf of the BBC’s Panorama team ahead of the release of a new film – Mariupol: The People’s Story – which will air on BBC One tonight at 9pm.
1,500 new graves have surfaced at a mass grave site north of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol (in yellow), in addition to 1,700 that surfaced between the Russian invasion and May 12 (in red) and 1,400 between May and June 29 were dug (in orange)
The mass grave is in Staryi Krym, about eight kilometers from the center of Mariupol, which has been occupied by Russia since mid-May
Of those 25,000, officials say between 5,000 and 7,000 may have died under rubble after their homes were hit by Russian shells.
Mariupol, a strategic city lying on the road from Russia’s border regions to occupied Crimea, was one of the earliest targets of Putin’s invasion.
It was bombed and shelled from the first day of the attack and was completely surrounded by Kremlin forces in early March.
Russian artillery units then systematically leveled city blocks to capture them from Ukraine, culminating in a standoff at the Azovstal Steelworks.
Ukrainian troops held the manufacturing facility for weeks but finally surrendered in May after running out of food, ammunition and medical supplies.
Mariupol city officials say that during the siege, all food, water and medical supplies were cut off and people spent weeks in their basements shielding themselves from shells.
Gravediggers bury the bodies of civilians killed during the Russian bombing in pits dug along roads after burials in cemeteries became impossible
Analysts have monitored three mass grave sites near Mariupol since the city fell to Russia and say they have been growing steadily since the spring (a site in Vynohradne pictured).
Routes to and from Mariupol were heavily mined and shelled, meaning humanitarian convoys had difficulty bringing aid to the people. Civilian convoys attempting to evacuate people were often fired upon.
Pictures taken of the city during the siege showed mass graves being dug along the roadside so that bodies could be buried.
Survivors recalled leaving the corpses’ relatives in their homes for days because they could not bury them, or digging shallow pits in their gardens.
As a result, the exact death toll remains a matter of conjecture. But Ukrainian officials have long warned that the toll on Mariupol will almost certainly dwarf the atrocities uncovered in Bucha, Irpin and Izyum.
Analysts have been tracking several mass grave sites around Mariupol for evidence of the true extent of the civilian death toll.
Satellite images of burial sites in Staryi Krym, Manhush and Vynohradne show that they have all grown steadily since the spring.
Kiev officials say as many as 25,000 civilians may have died during the Russian siege of Mariupol, including up to 7,000 who perished under the rubble of their destroyed homes
Analysts discovered 1,700 new graves added at the Staryi Krym site between the start of the Russian invasion and May 12 – just before the last Ukrainian troops surrendered.
Another 1,400 graves were added between that date and June 29, when a new satellite image of the area was taken.
Between June 29 and October 12, 1,500 new graves turned up – a total of 4,600 graves in seven months in this one location.
Analysts said it’s not possible to determine how many bodies are buried in each pit, meaning the real death toll could actually be higher.