UN human rights team in Ukraine says evidence of ‘mass graves’ in Mariupol

The UN human rights office says it is receiving increasing information on mass graves in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, including one that appears to hold around 200 bodies.

“We have got increasing information on mass graves that are there,” says Matilda Bogner, who heads the rights office’s Ukraine branch, according to the Reuters news agency.

Bogner says some of the information has been gathered using satellite imagery.

The UN’s strict methodology in counting casualties in Ukraine’s conflict has yielded “very few” confirmed casualties in Mariupol, largely because of difficulties getting access in and information out of the encircled port city.

Bogner notes that council leaders in Mariupol have estimated more than 2,000 civilian deaths in the city following Russia’s military invasion on February 24.

Overall, the rights office has counted at least 1,035 civilians killed in Ukraine and 1,650 injured but Bogner says it doesn’t have a “the full picture of locations that have seen intense fighting, in particular Mariupol and Volnovakha.”

The office has acknowledges that its tally is likely to underestimate the actual toll.