"The cemetery was everywhere." The dead in Mariupol - new evidence and assessments

 

What is the known number of victims in Mariupol today?

What is the reason for the mass death of the inhabitants of Mariupol at the beginning of the large-scale invasion?

Will Russia be responsible for the crimes committed in Mariupol?

 

 

According to a British publication, during the Russian siege of the city in 2022, 95 percent of the dead were civilians, and five percent were military personnel. The third place on this list is Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fourth is Gaza, and the fifth is the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The City Council pointed out that the Mariupol Drama Theater has become a symbol of Russian war crimes against local residents. The occupiers dropped two aerial bombs on the building, despite the inscription "CHILDREN" in capital letters.

According to preliminary data from the city council, at least 22,000 people died in Mariupol. However, the number of victims can be many times higher. Meanwhile, Russia accuses the Ukrainian army of allegedly killing civilians in Mariupol and holds so-called trials of Ukrainian soldiers who are in Russian captivity.  

 

 

The first deputy mayor of Mariupol, Mikhail Kohut, told “Sea of Azov News” that local authorities are collecting testimonies about the dead residents of Mariupol.

“We saw it with our own eyes, since we were in the city at the time. When we assessed the damage, we realized that every second high-rise building was destroyed. During the Russian shelling, people were hiding in the basements of these buildings. If we even do the math, we would realize that more than 20,000 [people] were in houses that Russia simply demolished, razed to the ground, hiding its crimes. According to photos provided by our European partners from May 2022, we saw that almost 6,000 private buildings were damaged and destroyed. It can be assumed that more than 3,000 people could have been there,” Kohut said.

According to officials, after detailed processing, the number of testimonies is 9,280. This is not the final figure, authorities continue to process other testimonies and find witnesses.

"For the residents of Mariupol, it is still important to establish justice and punish Russia for crimes against the local population. The Russian Federation took away our property there, they managed to take away the life we lived, but they definitely did not take away our desire for justice, so we are only for them to be punished for this. And we understand that recording in international registers, whether it is damage to property, or damage to health, loss of life - they must be responsible for all this. And that's why we are working now to record all this, enter it in the register and ask for global recognition", noted the deputy mayor of Mariupol.

The Mariupol City Council noted that this information from The Guardian points to war crimes committed by the Russian army during the massive attack on the city. Authorities noted that this was the only city in Ukraine blockaded by the Russian military in the first days of the large-scale invasion, and that residential areas, hospitals and civilian shelters were shelled from the air, land and sea.

 

 

Vyacheslav Tverdohlib, a journalist and blogger from Mariupol, is an eyewitness to the Russian blockade of the city. He told the News of the Sea of Azov that people died en masse precisely because Mariupol was blocked.

"It is certainly impossible to determine today how many people died. I even think it will be impossible to determine for years to come. When I was there, around

March 15 and 16 [2022], the city authorities, along with the military, were still trying to count.

Until March 11 [2022 year] there were 132 deaths per day, plus 60 people in the emergency room. But this does not take into account the fact that there were mass funerals, for example, behind the Californian wholesale market - people were taken from the streets in two rows," said the journalist.

 

 

Tverdohlib recalls that many locals were killed by shelling of high-rise buildings and believes that the number of victims of the Russian blockade of the city is around 100,000 people.

"Of the 210 people who entered the high-rise building, 19 got out. Then the FAB 500 arrived, if I'm not mistaken, and, unfortunately, people were simply buried. Then the people who stayed there said that some of the people who remained in the corridors of their apartments were mummified, that is, this concrete dust was like a sorbent that draws moisture from the body. People sat in their corridors - mummified and remained there.

Every communal benefit for a completely surrounded city was worth its weight in gold. People simply lay by the water, in the market, on the streets, on benches, in parks, at bus stops. Some were in blankets, some were just on the ground. The cemetery was everywhere," said a resident of Mariupol.

When Russian troops entered the outskirts of the city, residents of Mariupol continued to look for their relatives in the places where the bodies of the dead were taken, says the journalist.

"It was cold at night, the bodies were taken away, and people were just looking for their dead relatives. As far as I know, there was a mortuary for exhumations in the Metro area, they supposedly did exhumations there, but it was very fast, and there were not enough people, there was a lack of communication. Even if there were relatives, they were either somewhere in the area, or they went somewhere, or they were not in touch. You see, there are people there who are buried in yards, in craters grenade, right under the bridges", recalls a resident of Mariupol.  

 

 

Lyudmila Chichera is the wife of Mariupol volunteer and founder of the organization “Kalabud”, Dmitry Chichera. Her husband disappeared in mid-March 2022, when the city was under siege by Russian troops. According to her, during

this period, “Kalabud” provided assistance to about 25,000 residents – civilians, military personnel and police.

"On February 24 [2022], we all gathered at 9 am at the foot of the 'Kalabud' clearing and decided who would be responsible for what, what we should do. We came to the conclusion that we had to get food, medicine and drinking water.

From February 24 to 6-7 p.m. March 2022, until the Russian army entered 'Kalabud', we managed to organize more than 250 volunteers to help the residents of Mariupol. When it became clear that it was dangerous to stay in Mariupol, street fighting was already underway, part of our team decided to evacuate the city. 15-16. March, if I'm not mistaken, the volunteers and the 'Kalabuda' team started leaving in their transport. Dima then decided to stay. The last time I spoke to him was on March 16, 2022," Ljudmila recalls.

She also said that, according to eyewitnesses, he was last seen on March 17. His friends, who were still in Mariupol at that time, started looking for a volunteer and tried to find out at least some information. But there were no results. What happened to Dmitri is still unknown, says his wife.

"On March 17, 2022, Dima left 'Kalabuda' to call or check on people who had taken shelter from shelling in a building near 'Kalabuda.' He never returned to 'Kalabuda.'

A few more friends stayed with Dima, who went looking for him 2-3 hours after he did not return. They felt something was wrong. His friends, with all the strength they had, searched for him. They walked up and down Nielsen Street, on the side, Metalurška Avenue. They did not find signs of injury to the person, they did not find the body. There were no traces of Dmitri anywhere nearby," said Ludmila Chichera.

The hope that her husband is in Russian captivity still exists. The wife hopes that in time she will be able to find out what really happened to her husband and other missing residents of Mariupol.

“This summer I had the opportunity to visit the Netherlands, the city of The Hague. I was invited to the International Commission on Missing Persons. For me, Mariupol is a huge pain. I said this during a meeting with representatives of this organization, but they drew parallels that they are still looking for people who disappeared during the Yugoslav war and that the number of missing people there is measured in thousands.

I really sympathize with people who have to go through what I have been going through for four years. This is, let's say, an unrecognized loss. And you are constantly in limbo,” the woman added.

 

Alina Pavlyuk, a lawyer and analyst at the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, told the Azov Sea News that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is a justice mechanism created with the support of the UN. Trials within the framework of this tribunal were held in person, that is, those who participated in the commission of crimes were detained and found themselves in the dock.

In 1994, more than 800,000 people in Rwanda, mainly representatives of the Tutsi people, were killed at the hands of extremists from the Hutu tribe. During the genocide, representatives of the Hutu people who had moderate political views also died. The killings began on April 6, 1994, shortly after the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on approach to the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

“The Rwandan tribunal was held on the territory of one country, so it was much easier to communicate with witnesses and victims. It was much easier to search for and detain suspects. But despite the fact that, in fact, the jurisdiction of the tribunal itself has ended, some processes are still ongoing. In contrast, in our situation, these are two countries (Russia and Ukraine - ed. note), we understand that the biggest challenge is what the prospects will be for the detention of all possible suspects who are in the Russian Federation in the combat zone,” says Pavlyuk.

In addition, Ukraine does not have access to the occupied territories. The fact that the Russian side is destroying evidence of its participation in them can also affect the investigation of war crimes, says the lawyer. This especially applies to Mariupol.

"The main sources of information are still the explanations and testimonies of eyewitnesses who were there, who were able to go and contact the Ukrainian judicial system to give testimony. And what we can get on open networks, this is all information that was directly published. But given how much time has passed since then, we have already seen reports that some areas, buildings, were being restored - these loud statements about the restoration of the Mariupol Drama Theater. And this, accordingly, will affect the extent to which we will be able to recreate the real picture of the events that took place there," Pavlyuk comments.

The lawyer believes that the most promising way to punish Russian war criminals is to create a court that will cover the consequences of the armed conflict in general. And within the framework of a special case, the Russian blockade of Mariupol and everything that happened in the city at that time could be considered there.

"This issue still remains open. At present, the entire burden in the context of justice regarding Ukraine remains on the work of the national system. In addition, there are limited resources of the International Criminal Court, which, as we see, selects specific facts, specific episodes. In addition, there is a special court for the crime of aggression, which is still only on paper and is yet to be established, but which is unlikely to consider specific episodes and assess what happened in Mariupol," the expert noted.

 

Russian troops occupied Mariupol in May 2022 after bloody battles and a long blockade. During the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Mariupol was almost completely destroyed by shelling.

According to Texty.org.ua, in February 2022, 5,700 Ukrainian defenders held the defense of Mariupol. While they were attacked by the Russian army, which numbered 18,000 to 22,000 people. The defense of the city lasted 86 days - from February 24 to May 20, 2022.

Russian troops are suspected of numerous war crimes in Mariupol. Moscow denies this.

According to UN estimates, about 90 percent of multi-storey residential buildings and about 60 percent of private houses in the city were destroyed or damaged.

The remains of the dead were recovered from the rubble in February 2023, according to the Russian occupation authorities of the city. At least 10,284 people were buried between March 2022 and February 2023. Human Rights Watch published this data after analyzing images from five local cemeteries, emphasizing that this is a significant underestimate of the number of dead. According to data confirmed by the city authorities, at least 20,000 people died in the destroyed and Russian-occupied Mariupol, the city's mayor Vadim Boychenko said in an interview with Radio Liberty. Russia accuses Ukrainian soldiers of the alleged killings of civilians in Mariupol and holds so-called trials of Ukrainian soldiers held in Russian captivity.