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The Russian military has been dumping plastic bags containing corpses into new mass graves in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine according to reports
The Russian military has been dumping plastic bags containing corpses into new mass graves in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine, according to reports, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues towards the end of its second month.
The Kremlin's forces are said to have dumped remains bundled inside plastic bags into three mass graves near a bypass road in the embattled southern Ukrainian port city, according to a report by Mirror.
Russia was accused of the newest war crime by a local government official.
"Mariupol. Right now. War crimes," Counselor to Mariupol's mayor Petro Andriushchenko shared the statement on Telegram.
He furthered in the statement that "after a long search and identification" of the mass graves of the residents killed by Russian attacks, authorities have discovered that Moscow had been digging mass graves in the village of Manhush.
Andriushchenko described the mass graves near a bypass road as "up to 30 meters each." He claimed that the Russians are using trucks to bring the dead bodies "stuffed into plastic bags" and "simply throw them in bulk" into the holes.
"This is direct evidence of war crimes and their attempts to hide them," the official said.
The grave is the latest reminder of the kind of atrocities Russia has committed so far in this war. A US satellite firm similarly identified a mass burial site containing about 200 graves near the same city.
More And More Civilians Getting Killed
According to a BBC story, Mariupol municipal council had previously published a statement accusing the Russians of burying civilians in the same area.
The council accused the Russians of constructing pits and bringing the dead in dump lorries. It offered its aerial photograph of the location, which it claimed was "already twice as huge as the nearby cemetery."
Thousands of civilians may have been killed in the city, according to the Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces and top Kremlin lawmakers of mass killing of civilians, which Moscow has frequently denied.
Evidence of mass graves outside Mariupol appeared as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the "liberation" of the southeastern port city by the Russian military, as per a CNN report, despite the aborted attempt to raid the Azovstal steel company. It is the last stronghold of Ukrainian defenders inside the city, where civilians have taken refuge.
Mariupol has been under persistent Russian shelling since the beginning of Putin's war, and much of the city has been damaged. A maternity hospital and a theater where up to 1,300 people were finding safety were among the civilian institutions targeted.
Although many people have evacuated, around 100,000 are still in Mariupol and its adjacent areas, mostly under Russian control.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) cites growing evidence of war crimes in Ukraine.
UN Condemns Russia's Latest War Crimes
Al Jazeera reported that the UN human rights office sounded the alarm about growing evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, urging both Moscow and Kyiv to order combatants to respect international law.
The office of UN Office High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet accused the Russian military of "indiscriminately" shelling and bombing populated areas, "killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure."
The statement noted that such actions "may amount to war crimes."
According to a UN expedition to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, 50 civilians have been slain there, including by summary execution.
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