The number of bodies in the city of Mariupol is huge. Petro Andreyushchenko, the mayor’s adviser, estimated that 22,000 were killed in two months of fighting. However, the person in charge of the body in the city claims that there are close to 50,000 dead in the city
After Russia’s attack on the city of Mariupol, tens of thousands of people are trying to identify their loved ones before it is too late. The huge number of bodies in Mariupol, Petro Andreyushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol in Ukraine, estimated that 22,000 died in two months of fighting. However, a man responsible for trying to find the names of the dead told the Guardian that the total was closer to 50,000 dead.
People who know where their loved ones are buried are navigating themselves through the chaotic burial process under the new authorities appointed by the occupying Russians. Others spend their days in new groups on social media trying to gather information, fearing they may never find the bodies of loved ones, others posting pictures and videos of grave markers, as well as pictures of handwritten dead lists with burial sites, written by unknown individuals.
As temperatures rise as summer approaches, the smell of corpses wafts through some streets, residents told the Guardian who are staying in the city. Some bodies are still trapped under rubble or flats or buried in shallow makeshift tombs or mass graves, some of which appear to have been poorly marked or even unmarked, others left on the street and rotted, and some may have crumbled after being directly damaged or burned.
Julia, who left Mariupol for Russia many years ago, said she found out through her former classmates in the telegram that her father had died in his apartment in late March. Her father’s neighbor said he wrapped him in a blanket, pulled him out with a wheelbarrow and left him near their building.
“The neighbor did not bury him because it was not safe. Maybe the emergency services took the body later because it started to heat up and hungry dogs were running around everywhere. I even watched a video of dogs eating bodies, it’s just awful. I’m even afraid to think about it,” she said. Julia.
Since Russia declared victory in April, Mariupol has come under the control of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. The new authorities say relatives can give DNA samples for identification, which in theory indicates that they are collecting samples from the bodies. But a burial worker said he had not heard of such a practice or database. If no DNA samples are collected, thousands of bodies may never be identified, and the dimensions and truth of what happened in Mariupol will never be known. Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of using mass graves to cover up its crimes.