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Over 10,000 Civilians Killed during Russian Siege of Mariupol, Mayor Claims

The mayor of Mariupol, Ukraine, said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died during the Russian siege and subsequent occupation of the city.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko warned that the final civilian death toll could exceed 20,000 in a phone call with the Associated Press, and said that corpses were “carpeted through the streets.” Boychenko also claimed Russian forces had brought mobile crematoriums to the city.

“Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” Boychenko said.

Meanwhile, about 120,000 civilians remain in the city and are in need of food and water, according to the mayor.

Boychenko’s claims were not immediately verifiable. City officials have previously told residents to leave bodies in the streets because it was too difficult to bury them, while two AP reporters documented mass graves in the city last month.

The new report comes as the Russian military appeared to regroup for a renewed focus on fighting in Ukraine’s east. Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters Russia was preparing for an assault on the Donbas region, after meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“The attack being threatened cannot be underestimated in its violence,” Nehammer said, according to the New York Times.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the U.S. has “indications” that Russia is attempting to regroup its forces in the Donbas.

“We have seen some some early indications…that the Russians are in fact trying to resupply and reinforce their efforts in the Donbas,” Kirby said at a press conference.

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