Zaporizhia, Ukraine (AP) – New satellite images show mass graves near Mariupol and local officials have accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians to cover up the massacre in the besieged port city.
The photos emerged on Thursday, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had won the fight for Mariupol despite the fact that 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still at the huge steel plant. Putin ordered his troops to close the fort instead of storming “so that not even an insect could enter.”
Satellite imagery provider Maxar Technologies has released photos showing more than 200 mass graves in the city where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have banned Mariupol residents who died in the fighting. The image shows a long row of graves extending from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhuash just outside Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boichenko accused the Russians of “hiding war crimes” by removing the corpses of civilians from the city and burying them in Manchus.
The Mariupol city council said on Thursday that the graves could contain up to 9,000 dead.
Boichenko called Russia’s actions in the city “new Babi Yar,” pointing to the site of several Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
“The bodies of the dead were carried in trucks and, in fact, they were just thrown into the hills,” Boichenko’s aide Piotr Andryushchenko told the Telegram.
There was no reaction from the Kremlin. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were found in other cities around Bucha and Kiev after Russian troops withdrew three weeks ago, Russian officials denied that their soldiers had killed the civilians there and accused Ukraine of atrocities. .
In a statement, Maxar said analysis of previous photos indicated that graves in Manchus were excavated in late March and enlarged in recent weeks.
After nearly two months of deadly bombing, Mariupol has been reduced significantly to burning ruins, Russian forces appearing to have control over the rest of the strategically southern city, including the important but now severely damaged port.
But Moscow has several thousand Ukrainian soldiers, according to estimates Standing stubborn for several weeks at an iron mill, Despite repeated calls for a strike by Russian forces and their surrender . According to Ukrainian officials, about 1,000 civilians were trapped there.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russia of carrying out attacks to block the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.
At least two Russian attacks took place on Thursday in the city of Zaporizhia, a highway for people fleeing Mariupol. No one was hurt, the governor said.
Among those who arrived in Zaporizhia after fleeing the city were Yuri and Polina Lulake, who spent nearly two months in the basement with at least a dozen other people. No water and little food, Yuri Lulak said.
“It’s scary what’s going on there that you can’t describe,” said a native Russian, who used abusive language against Russian troops, saying “they kill people in vain”.
“Mariopol is gone. “There are only graves and crosses in the courtyards,” Lulach said.
The Red Cross said it was waiting for the evacuation of 1,500 people by bus, but the Russians only allowed a few dozen and dropped some people off the buses.
Dmitry Antipenko said he mainly lived in the basement with his wife and father -in -law in the midst of death and destruction.
“There’s a small cemetery in the courtyard and we buried seven people there,” Antipenko said, wiping away his tears.
Instead of sending troops to put an end to Mariupol’s defenders in a potentially bloody frontal attack on an iron mill, Russia seems to want to keep the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food. o bala.
More than 100,000 people are said to have been trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, where the pre-war population was approximately 430,000. According to Ukrainian authorities, more than 20,000 people were killed in the siege.
The city has garnered worldwide attention as the scene of the war’s most horrific suffering, including the deadly air strike on a maternity hospital and a theater.
Boichenko has denied any allegations that Mariupol is in Russian hands.
“The city is, is and remains Ukrainian,” he said. “Now our brave warriors, our heroes are defending our city.”
The capture of Mariupol was the Kremlin’s biggest victory in the war in Ukraine. This will help Moscow protect more of the coast, complete the land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula that Russia occupied in 2014, and deploy more forces to join the larger and potentially more important battle that is taking place. . now for the eastern industrial center of Ukraine. Donbass.
In a joint statement with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin said that “the completion of the fight to liberate Mariupol is a victory” and congratulated Shoigu.
Shoigu expects to take over the Azovstal steel mill in three to four days. But Putin said it was “useless” and expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops so they did not decide to send them to clean up a large factory where dedicated defenders were hiding in a maze of passages. underground.
Instead, the Russian leader said the military should “block this industrial area so that not even an insect can enter.”
The factory covers 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is decorated with 24 kilometers of tunnels and bunkers.
“Russia’s agenda today is not to seize these really difficult areas where Ukrainians can stay in the city centers, but to try to seize the territory and also to seize the Ukrainian forces and declare a great success, “said the British Rear Admiral on Chris’ retirement. said Paris.
A few weeks ago Russian officials said the main goal of the war was to occupy the Russian -speaking Donbas. Moscow forces this week opened a new stage of fighting on a 300-mile (480-kilometer) front from the northeastern city of Kharkov to the Sea of Azov.
Although Russia continues to conduct heavy air and artillery strikes in these areas, it does not appear to have gained significant ground in recent days, according to military analysts who say Moscow forces are strengthening still on the attack.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the Pentagon’s analysis, said Ukrainians were blocking Russia’s efforts to move south from Izmir.
On Thursday, rockets hit the Kharkiv region and burned at least two civilians in a car. School and residential buildings were damaged, firefighters tried to put out the fire and search for mufflers.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said Russian troops had kidnapped a local official leading a humanitarian convoy in the southern Kherson region. He said the Russians offered to release him in exchange for Russia’s POWs, but described it as unacceptable.
Vereshchuk also said that attempts to create three humanitarian corridors in the Kherson region on Thursday failed because Russian troops failed to blow up.
US President Joe Biden Has Pledged An Additional $ 1.3 Billion To Help Ukraine With New Weapons And Economic Aid, And He Pledged More From Congress To Hide Weapons, Ammunition, And Money.
Associated Press reporters Mstislav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkov, Ukraine; Danika Kirka of London; And Robert Burns and Amer Madhani contributed to this report in Washington, DC, as well as other AP staff members around the world.
Source: Huffpost
