More than 10,000 civilians have died in Russia's siege of Mariupol, says mayor
The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city. The death toll could surpass 20,000, he said, noting that dead bodies were "carpeted through the streets."
Speaking by phone Monday to the Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies, and he accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage.
Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping centre where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, Boychenko said.
"Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned," he said.
Thousands of residents are still trapped in Mariupol, with scant access to food, water and electricity since Russian forces surrounded the city. Evacuation efforts by the Red Cross to rescue those trapped in the city have been hampered, with each side blaming the other.
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