About 120,000 residents staying in Mariupol – mayor

“To date, about 150,000 people have left the city for the government-controlled part of our state. Unfortunately, more than 100,000 people are staying in the city today, waiting for evacuation, about 120,000 people,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said at an online press briefing at the Ukraine Media Center, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

As noted, about 60,000 people around Mariupol are also waiting for evacuation.

“That is why we appeal every day, every morning, to the entire international community, saying that we must unite for the liberation of Mariupol, for the evacuation of all civilians from our Mariupol. As long as our Mariupol stands, so does our Ukraine,” Boychenko stressed.

Mariupol experiences one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes due to Russia's aggression. The invaders bomb unarmed residents and block the delivery of humanitarian aid.

According to Mariupol Mayor, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed since the Russian invasion and the death toll could rise to 20,000 as Russian invaders keep attacking the city and leaving the bodies of Mariupol residents "like a carpet in the streets."

The Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that about 13 Russian mobile crematoriums were located in Mariupol to clear the streets from the bodies of dead civilians. The invaders try to identify all potential eyewitnesses to atrocities through filtration camps and kill them.

Russians also deprive Mariupol residents of Ukrainian passports and forcibly transfer them to Russia and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Azov Regiment members continue to defend Mariupol.

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