In early April, the world was met by the first images from the Ukrainian city of Butja.

When Russian forces withdrew from the city, civilian dead people were seen on the streets in ordinary residential areas and about 300 people have been buried in mass graves.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the killings - but this week satellite images showed how the dead bodies had been on the streets since March 11, which is several weeks before Russian forces left the city.

The New York Times has published photos from the satellite company Maxar Technologies that show how dead bodies are scattered across the street Yablonska as early as March 11.

Photo: Maxar Technologies

American company

The satellite images come from the American company Maxar Technologies.

In 2015, Swedish Saab entered into a 50/50 Joint Venture called Vricon Inc with DigitalGlobe, which is now Maxar, to produce, among other things, photorealistic 3D products.

In 2020, the Americans bought out the Saab.

Today, research and development for 3D remains in Linköping with one hundred engineers.

- Maxar was set up to be a commercial satellite company in order to provide transparency.

US authorities did not want to share the spy satellites, so they partly financed Maxar, which is also financed with private capital.

Thanks to that, you can show these pictures, says Leif Haglund who is CEO of the subsidiary Maxar International Sweden based in Linköping.

"These are hard facts"

He thinks it is important that these pictures are now shown.

- I think these pictures are fantastically important and provide transparency and show what is really happening.

These are hard facts that come from space.

It is not "invented", but shows exactly what has happened, says Leif Haglund.

At the beginning of the war, Maxar was also able to view satellite images of the Russian convoy heading for Kyiv.

Photo: Maxar / AP / TT

No Russian customers

The Linköping part of the company is working on making 3D models of the satellite images.

The company is commercial, but carefully chooses who they sell the information to.

- For example, there are no deals today with Russia.

Maxar has never sold anything to Russian authorities.

It is a decision made by the company: we do not deal with Russian and Chinese authorities.

If there is a risk of human life in conflict hotspots, certain images are also put "on hold", says Leif Haglund.

In the clip above, Leif Haglund answers three questions about the satellite images and the technology behind them.