According to local leaders, up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians could have been executed by Russian forces and buried in mass graves outside Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko revealed the grim development on Thursday, calling the site of the atrocities in the nearby village of Manhush “the new Babi Yar,” a nod to the Ukrainian Holocaust site where tens of thousands of Jews were killed in World War II .
“Then Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying the Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” Boychenko said on Thursday, according to his city council.
“This requires a strong response from around the world. We must stop the genocide by all means.”
Boychenko accused Russian invaders of “concealing their war crimes” by digging huge trenches near Manhush, 12 miles west of Mariupol, and dumping bodies there.
Satellite photos of mass graves shared by Ukrainian media on Thursday show an eerily similar scene to the burial sites found outside Kyiv earlier this month. The new images could not be verified immediately.
The site is “the new Babi Yar,” a reference to the Ukrainian Holocaust site where Jews were killed in World War II, the mayor of Mariupol said. Kommersant Photo / Polaris/Anatoliy Zhdanov
Meanwhile, Russia continued shelling humanitarian corridors in Mariupol on Thursday, violating its ceasefire agreement and preventing residents from evacuating the strategically central southern port city, officials said.
“Not good news from Mariupol. Everything was going hard,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram. “On the Russian side, everything was very difficult, chaotic, slow and, of course, dishonest.”
“We apologize to the residents of Mariupol who could not be evacuated today. The shelling started at the evacuation point, which is why the humanitarian corridor had to be closed.”
Vereshchuk cited a development that “gave her hope”. Four buses were allowed to carry 79 residents out of the Russian-controlled area on Wednesday, she said.
A satellite image shows an overview of the cemetery and the extension of the new tombs in Manhush near Mariupol, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.Reuters/Maxar Technologies
A service member of pro-Russian troops stands in front of the destroyed Azovstal Iron and Steel Works administration building in Mariupol, Ukraine April 21, 2022. Reuters/Chingis Kondarov
The news came as President Joe Biden allocated an additional $1.3 billion for arms and economic aid to Ukraine.
The money would go “straight to the frontlines of freedom,” adding to the $13.6 billion the US has already pledged to help the country repel its unprovoked invaders.
In Moscow, Russia announced that Vice President Kamala Harris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and 27 other prominent Americans would be banned from entering Russia in response to the Biden administration’s “widening anti-Russian sanctions”.
At least one of the dignitaries concerned said he viewed the ban as an honor.
“I have to say it is nothing short of a distinction to earn the wrath of a government that lies to its own people, brutalizes its neighbors and seeks to create a world where freedom and liberty are on the run and, when they’ve wiped out their ways,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
With AP wires