Kyiv, Apr 22 (AP) As many as 9,000 civilians could be buried in a mass grave in the village of Manhush outside Mariupol, the city's mayor said in a Telegram post Thursday.

"The greatest war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babi Yar,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said, referring to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.

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"Then Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” he added. “This requires a strong reaction from the entire world. We need to stop the genocide by any means possible.”

In a separate statement earlier Thursday, Boychenko alleged the Russians had dug huge trenches near Manhush, 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) west of Mariupol, and were “hiding their war crimes” by dumping bodies there.

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On Thursday evening, Ukrainian media published satellite photos of Manhush, showing what they said were mass graves similar to - although much larger in size from - the ones discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. The accuracy of these claims and images could not be immediately verified.

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Kyiv: No residents could be evacuated from the encircled city of Mariupol on Thursday due to continuing Russian shelling of agreed-to humanitarian corridors, Ukrainian deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post on Thursday evening.

"No happy news out of Mariupol. Everything has been hard-going,” she wrote. “On the Russian side, everything has been very difficult, chaotic, slow, and of course, dishonest.”

"We apologize to the residents of Mariupol who did not get to be evacuated today. Shelling began at the evacuation point, which is why the humanitarian corridor had to be closed.”

In the same post, Vereshchuk acknowledged that on Wednesday, a four-bus convoy was allowed to transport 79 civilians from Mariupol to Kyiv-controlled territory in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhhia region - a development she said “gave her hope.”

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Kyiv: A Ukrainian official raised the possibility of a Ukrainian airstrike against the strategically important bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland. His statement on Thursday prompted angry denouncements from top Russian political figures.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, was asked in an interview with Ukraine's Radio NV whether Kyiv would be able to hit the $4 billion Kerch bridge, which is Moscow's only direct road link to the peninsula, in order to stem the flow of military resupplies channeled through it.

“Had we been able to do it, we would have already done it,” Danilov said in response. “If there is a possibility, we will definitely do it.”

He did not clarify whether Kyiv currently has the capability to carry out an attack.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, branded Danilov's statement “nothing else than the announcement of a possible terrorist act” and “unacceptable.”

Speaking at a regular press briefing on Thursday, Peskov added that “all security measures” were in place around the Kerch bridge and “other strategic facilities.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)