Mariupol Mass Grave Could Have 9,000 Dead Bodies: 'Biggest War Crime Of 21st Century'

New satellite images taken of Mariupol showed a mass grave where thousands of Ukrainians could be buried, a discovery that an official said was evidence of the Russian war crimes.

The Mariupol City Council on Thursday published satellite images of the mass graves captured by the U.S. defense contractor Maxar Technologies. The graves were at least 20 times larger than the ones discovered by officials in the city of Bucha in early April.

City officials said they have so far uncovered 70 bodies in the grave. Officials estimate that the mass graves could have between 3,000 and 9,000 corpses in total. The council also added it received evidence that Russians “dug new trenches” and buried the bodies of Ukrainians “in several layers.” The International Business Times could not independently confirm this.

Upon reviewing the images, Maxar Technologies said the graves first appeared between March 23 and March 26 and continued to expand in April. There are now over 200 plots, with each grave measuring roughly 280 feet in length.

The discovery of the mass graves brought condemnation from Ukrainian officials. In a Telegram post, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the burial site was similar to that of the mass graves at Babi Yar, a ravine in Kyiv, where Nazi forces killed and buried approximately 33,000 Jews in 1941.

“The biggest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babi Yar. Hitler then killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians,” Boychenko said. “We need to do everything we can to stop the genocide.”

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol Mayor Boychenko, said the photos served as evidence of the Russians’ attempts to cover up their war crimes.

“All bodies are placed in plastic bags, meaning this once again confirms our first information about the accumulation of bodies of the dead elsewhere in the prom zone in Mariupol,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “This is a direct proof of military crimes and an attempt to hide them.”

The discovery of the mass graves comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the besieged city even as the thousands of Ukrainian fighters refuse to surrender to Russian troops.