Satellite images show expansion of Mariupol graveyard and destruction of city by Russia

Protective screen erected around theatre where hundreds killed by missile attack, aerial photos suggest

Satellite imagery of Mariupol appear to show the extension of a burial site in the southern Ukrainian city which was brutally beseiged and captured by Russia in the first months of Vladimir Putin’s war.

The Azov Sea port has been fully under Moscow’s control since May, and photographs captured by Maxar Technologies provide some evidence of what Russia’s forces have done there since their occupation began.

Up to 95 per cent of the city’s buildings were destroyed in the onslaught, according to Ukrainian premier Denis Shmyhal, and the images taken this week appear to show that Russia is now demolishing dozens of high-rise apartment buildings damaged in its bombardment in March.