Satellite image of Manhouch provided by Maxar, Thursday April 21. Ukrainian authorities speak of tens of thousands of civilians killed in Mariupol. They claim that some of them were buried in mass graves. – /AFP
Satellite images released on Thursday, April 21 by the American company Maxar Technologies show “the existence of mass graves in the north-west of Manhouch,” a village 20 kilometers from Mariupol. According to Maxar, the images show long rows of graves, more than 200, near an existing cemetery. Maxar, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, said the graves were dug in late March and expanded in recent weeks.
In a message published on Telegram, Vadym Boïtchenko, the mayor of Mariupol, accuses the Russians of “hiding their military crimes”. At Manhouch, “the inmates should have buried between 3,000 and 9,000 residents,” he wrote. “They dig thirty-meter holes and put the bodies of Mariupol residents in trucks.” He estimates that the Russian shelling of Mariupol has claimed at least 20,000 lives since the siege began.
Images taken between March 23rd and 26th show the first rows of pits measuring approximately 1.8m by 3m. Satellite images taken two weeks later, on April 6, show the expansion of the site where more than 200 pits were dug, covering nearly 4,000m² of land.
“Mariupol is the greatest war crime of the 21st century. This is the new Babi Yar,” wrote Vadym Boïtchenko, referring to the “gorge of good women” in Kyiv, where on September 29-30, 1941, 33,771 Jews were executed with a bullet in the neck in front of more than 100,000 people – Jews, gypsies, partisans, prisoners… – were killed in the same place until November 1943.
The length of the Manhouch pits is 300 meters. For comparison, the bodies of 70 people were found in a 14-meter-long mass grave near Boutcha Church, recalls Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which has started investigating these graves.
The Russian army indicted
In mid-March, public services buried about 5,000 people in different areas of Mariupol and its suburbs. Conservative estimates put the total number of Russian military casualties at 22,000 dead.
The United Nations and Red Cross find it impossible to estimate the number of civilian casualties at this time, but believe the number may be in the thousands. Russia says it evacuated 140,000 civilians from Mariupol to its soil. Ukraine accuses him of at least part of the deportation, which would constitute a war crime.
Russia did not comment on these results. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were discovered in Buchha and other towns around Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew three weeks ago, Russian officials denied that their soldiers had killed civilians there and accused Ukraine of orchestrating the atrocities.
The UN on Friday (April 22) accused the Russian army “of constituting war crimes” since the February 24 invasion, including bombings that killed civilians and destroyed schools and hospitals.
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