The mayor said a mass grave containing thousands of bodies had been discovered – dug by Ukrainians in exchange for food and water – near the besieged city of Mariupol.
Mayor Vadim Boychenko said on Tuesday that the huge trench, which stretches more than 600 feet, can be seen through satellite images.
We know about these mass graves because they [Russian] Fascists – and I have no other words – engage the locals to bury them,” Boychenko told Radio Svoboda. They told us you have to work hours [for] Food and water. …people are compelled to do this.”
The apparent mass grave is located in the ancient Crimean cemetery south of the city of Stari Krem on the outskirts of Mariupol.
Possible mass graves have also been detected Satellite images of the suburbs of Mariupol-Mangos and Vinohradnyeach eerily resembling burial sites Found outside Kyiv advance this month.
Mariupol authorities estimate that about 20,000 civilians have been killed in the two months since the city was bombed and besieged by Russian invaders.
On Tuesday, Russian forces continued to bombard the steel plant in Azovstal, where about 2,000 of the city’s last remaining defenders and 1,000 civilians took refuge.
“Russia has significantly intensified its strikes in the past 24 hours and is using heavy fortification bombs,” said Petro Andryushenko, Boychenko’s advisor. “The number of wounded will be clear once the rubble is removed.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to the participation of the United Nations and the Red Cross in evacuating civilians from Azovstal on Tuesday during a meeting in Moscow with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The Russian leader also claimed that civilians were being held in the factory against their will by Ukrainian forces using them as human shields.
with wire
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