Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed “success” in Mariupol but ordered his forces not to storm the site where the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the besieged port city is holding out.
Ukrainian officials said Thursday that an apparent mass grave in a village outside of the devastated city may contain as many as 9,000 bodies.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko compared the site to the Kyiv ravine where Nazi forces killed an estimated 33,000 Jews in 1941.
“The biggest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol,” he said. “This is the new Babi Yar. Hitler then killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians.”
Ukrainian forces have held out under weeks of heavy bombardment that has decimated much of Mariupol and prompted international condemnation of Moscow’s tactics. Kyiv has been desperately seeking ways to evacuate the soldiers and thousands of civilians still trapped in the city without much food or aid.
The fate of Mariupol and the broader Russian offensive in the east have prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to call again on his country’s allies for urgent supplies of weapons — an appeal the U.S. looks set to meet, with President Joe Biden announcing a new $800 million military aid package in remarks Thursday morning.
