Maxar's new satellite images show that three mass burial sites near occupied Mariupol have "steadily" grown since spring, according to the BBC. There are roughly 1,500 new graves at one of them – in Staryi Krym, north of Mariupol, it wrote.
In total, in Staryi Krym, more than 4,600 graves have been dug since the beginning of Russia's all-out invasion. However, it's hard to know for sure how many bodies are buried at the site.
Two other mass burial sites – in Manhush and Vynohradne – are located west and east of Mariupol, which endured Russia's months-long siege.
The death toll caused by the siege remains unclear, as Mariupol, once home to nearly 500,000 people, sits in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.
Witnesses in Mariupol told the BBC that they've seen Russian proxies clearing bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings over recent months to bury them elsewhere.
On Sept. 30, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was annexing Ukraine's Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts after Russia's proxies had held sham referendums in the occupied parts of these regions.
Ukraine and its Western allies have condemned Russia for its illegal annexation claims, stressing that the occupied territories belong to Ukraine.
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