Viral video of mass graveyards in Mariupol shows human impact of Russia's invasion in Ukraine

A viral video of mass graveyards in Mariupol brings home the devastating human impact of Russia's invasion in Ukraine.The two minute clip shows footage that appears to have been taken from a car driving through unnamed graves in the city.

Lesia Vasylenko, who moved her children out of the country before returning to defend Ukraine posted the clip on Twitter and can be sourced back to a French journalist who posted it on Thursday.

Vasylenko wrote: "Nameless graves in #Mariupol fields. A fresh cemetery with hundreds of burials. Before these fields were green…as was the city alive and populous. #Russia must pay."

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The video was also posted yesterday By Stratcom Centre, the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

It is day 108 of Russia's war in Ukraine and Vadym Boichenko, mayor of Mariupol, has said Russia has demolished 1,300 high-rise buildings in the city of Mariupol without removing dead bodies of residents.

He has warned cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands of people in the city if the corpses lie uncollected and summer brings warmer weather.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

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