The mayor of Mariupol, Ukraine, said on Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have already been killed by Russian forces.
Mayor Vadym Boychenko said he fears the civilian death toll could rise to over 20,000 in the coming weeks.
Boychenko said he believes the Russians are blocking humanitarian aid into the city to keep the outside world from seeing the carnage. Roughly 120,000 civilians in the city have been cut off from food, water, and communication with the rest of the world.
Russia has sent mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies of the victims.
“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.
Russian troops are confiscating Ukrainian citizens’ passports and moving them to “filtration camps” in eastern Ukraine. Only residents who pass through the “filtration camps” are allowed to flee the city.
Residents who do not pass through the “filtration camps” are sent to Russia or separatist territory in Ukraine while temporary prisons are being constructed.
Russian soldiers opened fire on a car of civilians on March 16 in Mariupol, shooting 11-year-old Milena Uralova in the face.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine following Russian strikes on a Mariupol maternity hospital and theater. President Joe Biden said on March 16 that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a war criminal.”
