The claim is supported by photos collected and analyzed by US satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies that appear to show more than 200 new graves at a site on the northwestern edge of Manhush, a city about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Mariupol.
According to Ukrainian officials, an estimated 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, which has been under constant bombardment since it was encircled by Russian forces on March 1. Ukrainian officials claim that more than 20,000 people died in the city during the attack.
In a post Thursday via messaging app Telegram, Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, said Russian trucks collected bodies from the port city before “dumping” them in Manhush. “This is direct evidence of war crimes and attempts to cover them up.”
A Maxar review of satellite imagery from mid-March to mid-April found that the burial site expansion began between March 23 and 26 and continued into April. According to Maxar’s analysis, there are more than 200 newly dug graves at a site on the northwestern edge of Manhush.
“According to recent media reports, Russian soldiers brought the bodies of people killed in Mariupol to this place,” Maxar said in his analysis.
CNN cannot independently verify claims that Russians dumped bodies in mass graves at this site. An exact death toll after weeks of heavy bombardment of Mariupol is not available.
However, journalists in Mariupol have documented the hasty burial of civilians in the besieged city, and images have surfaced on social media showing bodies apparently left in the city for collection.
Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said Thursday that women, children and the elderly had died on the city’s streets.
“Unfortunately, we have seen that the bodies of the dead residents of Mariupol have started to disappear from the streets of our city,” he said.
According to Boichenko, the mass graves are off a ring road, near a cemetery. He said near the cemetery there was a field with ditches 30 meters long.
“And that’s where they bury them, bring the bodies of the dead in trucks and throw them in these ditches,” he said.
Putin announces the liberation of Mariupol
Evidence of mass graves outside of Mariupol emerged as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “liberation” of the southeastern port city by Russian forces — even as he called off an attempt to storm the Azovstal Steel Plant, the last bastion of Ukrainian defenders inside the city, where civilians also hid.
Mariupol has come under almost constant attack since the early days of Putin’s invasion, and much of the city has been destroyed by Russian shelling. The civilian buildings attacked included a maternity hospital and a theater where up to 1,300 people took refuge.
Although many have fled, an estimated 100,000 people still live in Mariupol and its immediate vicinity, most of which are reportedly under Russian control.
Ukrainian officials, who continue to keep the city in contention, have warned of a major humanitarian emergency in Mariupol as food and water run out, electricity and gas are cut off – but several attempts to set up evacuation corridors to allow civilians to escape have failed.
“Unfortunately, it is not possible to evacuate civilians from Azovstal today,” the city’s mayor Boichenko said on Thursday. “Because we demand a stable ceasefire. Somewhere we need a day to be able to accommodate those residents who have been hiding there for 57 days in a row and have been bombed, bombed and bombed.”
US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said Wednesday there was “some hope that the Russians could provide safe passage for civilians and wounded soldiers from Mariupol.” However, she warned that such an arrangement “has fallen apart a number of times before” and it is ultimately up to the Russians to facilitate safe passage.
She added that the siege of Mariupol “speaks the brutality of this war” and the war crimes committed by Vladimir Putin.
Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said earlier this month that her office is investigating 5,800 cases of alleged Russian war crimes, with “more and more” cases opening every day. US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has called the atrocities uncovered in Ukraine a “genocide”.
Russia has denied allegations of war crimes and claims its forces are not targeting civilians.