Researchers have identified what may be one of Ukraine’s largest Stalin-era mass graves. The remains of thousands of people were found in 29 graves in the southern city of Odessa. The site contained between 5,000 and 8,000 bodies and likely dates back to the 1930s. The site was uncovered during exploration works for a planned airport expansion. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are believed to have died under Stalin’s rule of the Soviet Union.
According to Sergiy Gutsalyuk, the head of the regional branch of Ukraine’s National Memory Institute, the victims were likely killed by secret police units during Stalin’s rule. However, it would be impossible to identify any of the victims as the records were likely kept in Russia. Around 8,600 people in Odessa were sentenced to death by the Soviet secret police between 1938 and 1941, according to the Ukrinform website.
Read More: Stalin-era mass grave found in Ukraine
