Researchers at CIR used satellite imagery to determine that approximately 1,400 new graves were added to Mariupol Starokrymske Cemetery between May 12 and June 29. CIR researchers estimate that five times as many new graves are being dug each month than before the Russian invasion. “Our report illustrates the ongoing, extreme pressure on civilian life in Ukraine, especially in the occupied territories. The makeshift burials and the growing number of graves around Ukraine, particularly in and around the occupied territories, are a clear illustration of the civilian death toll following the Russian invasion,” said Benjamin Strick, director of research at CIR. Russia announced in late May that it had taken control of Mariupol, after a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the port city to smoking ruins. Graphics Using images captured by Planet Labs PBC, a private satellite company, CIR estimated that by May 12 the number of graves at Mariupol Starokrymske Cemetery had increased by 1,700 since the start of the war, and by June 29 another 1,400 had been added. bringing the total number dug up since the invasion to 3,100. The images show that in the pre-war period between October 21 and March 28, approximately 1,000 graves were added. Since Russia seized Mariupol, the city has seen no more fighting, and the roughly 90,000 Ukrainians who remain have been left with little access to electricity, telephone, internet, water or healthcare. The CIR said the increase in peacetime graves could be explained by hundreds of bodies uncovered under damaged buildings in the city. In late May, Petro Andryushenko, a senior aide to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol who now operates out of the Russian city, said about 200 decomposing bodies were found buried in the basement of a Mariupol high-rise building. In total, Andryushchenko estimated that 22,000 people died in the city in the two months of fighting. One person among several burial coordinators in the city previously told the Guardian the total number could be closer to 50,000. The UN human rights office says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24. Kyiv says the real number is many times higher. Little information is known about the situation in Mariupol, which has been largely cut off from the outside world due to limited mobile phone and internet connections. Images posted from time to time on the “Mariupol Now” Telegram channel, which was created by a Ukrainian volunteer to get information out of the city, show bodies being taken for burial. In one particularly gruesome photo, which the channel said was taken in June, dozens of bodies can be seen lying in a car park. The CIR report said the high death rate observed in Mariupol during the fighting for the city “is associated with Russian movements and incessant shelling in reasonable proximity.” In Manhush, a town near Mariupol, CIR analyzed a grave site first reported by Ukrainian officials on April 21, when the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security in Ukraine announced that locals had found a new 30-meter mass grave. According to the CIR, images of the planet showed an increase in activity in the tomb from April 24 to May 8. The Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security claimed that 3,000 to 9,000 residents of Mariupol were buried in the mass grave. The report also analyzed a cemetery in Pionerske, a settlement outside Mariupol, which the report said showed the appearance of trenches at grave sites that coincided with newly established Russian military positions. “In cases such as Mariupol, the occurrence of multiple mass graves nearby, such as Pionerske, suggests the high mortality rate associated with Russian movements and incessant shelling in reasonable proximity,” the report said, concluding that combined with other evidence open source. “A clear picture emerges of the Kremlin conducting its campaign in violation of international human rights conventions.”
