Satellite footage released on Thursday shows the expansion of a mass gravesite in a town close to the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Maxar Technologies released photos showing a mass grave site in Manhush, Ukraine, which is situated more than 10 miles from Mariupol. Maxar noted that the bodies of the dead from Mariupol were being taken by Russian soldiers to this area, according to news reports.
“A review of our satellite images from mid-March through mid-April indicate that the expansion of the new set of graves began between March 23-26, 2022 and has continued to expand over the past couple of weeks,” Maxar said in a statement.
“The graves are aligned in four sections of linear rows (measuring approximately 85 meters per section) and contain more than 200 new graves.”
Five photos provided by Maxar showed the emergence of mass graves over time, later becoming noticeably sectioned off into rows.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Lithuanian lawmakers that “almost every day new mass graves are found.”
Ukrainian officials have also said that hundreds of people have been buried in mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine, one of the most well-documented sites of devastation in Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of its neighbor.
A European official said earlier this week, however, that they were concerned that the situation in Mariupol, which is still holding out against Russian forces, could be worse than that of Bucha.
“The Russians will continue to use artillery and bombings, and at the same time they will push civilians out of the city. So at the end of the day, we do expect a complete destruction of the city and many civilian casualties in Mariupol,” the official added.