The occupation authorities have closed the cemetery in the Old Crimea in Mariupol district, Donetsk region, for the burial of Mariupol residents because they ran out of space. This was reported by the advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andriushchenko on Saturday, UNN reports.
Details
"The occupation authorities have closed a spacious cemetery in the Old Crimea. Now it is impossible to bury a Mariupol resident there. The reason is simple and clear. They simply ran out of space. First, the tragic 21 sectors of mass graves of Mariupol residents killed by the Russians, with tens of thousands of graves. Then 300-400 new graves every week for three years. We ran out of space," Andriushchenko wrote on Telegram.
As the Mariupol City Council clarified, "the occupiers forbade Mariupol residents to bury the dead at the Starokrymske cemetery. Now only those citizens who were registered or lived in the village of Stary Krym are allowed to be buried there. The occupiers do not inform where to bury the city's residents." As noted, this cemetery has always been a city cemetery.
Andriushchenko noted that in addition to the shock of the scale of the city's extinction even "without war, a logical question arises. Where will the funerals be held now?
According to him, the location for the new cemetery has not been fixed.
"Here, too, everything is as expected and beautiful. But there is nothing. There is no place for a new cemetery. You can bury them at home now. Again, like in the spring of 2022," Andriushchenko wrote.
Addendum
Human Rights Watch, which published an extensive investigation documenting the destruction and casualties in Mariupol, reported that at least 8,000 people died in Mariupol between March 2022 and February 2023 due to Russia's full-scale invasion.
In May 2024, Andriushchenko reported that the Russians continue to try to hide the number of Mariupol residents killed during the invasion. However, they maintain a database of the dead, which includes DNA information and photographs. Ukraine has managed to obtain a database of dead children, which confirms the deaths of 164 children in Mariupol during the invasion. In total, at least 25,000 civilians from Mariupol were reportedly killed and buried.