The Mariupol city council on Wednesday accused Russian forces of relying on a mobile crematorium to cover up alleged war crimes in Ukraine’s southeastern port city. Mariupol, which has been partially occupied for weeks, has been the target of one of the most brutal Russian attacks in Ukraine since the invasion began in February. RUSSIA INVASES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES View of the Mariupol Theater destroyed during ground battles under the government of the Donetsk Democratic Republic, in eastern Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022.
“The killers are covering their tracks,” the city council said in a series of social media posts, adding that the Russians had set up “mobile crematoria.” “Russia’s top leadership has ordered the destruction of any evidence of crimes committed by its army in Mariupol,” the council added in a translated statement, accusing Moscow of reacting to the widespread condemnation of the mass killing of civilians in Bucha. Humanitarian access to the city has been blocked for weeks, with some 160,000 people unable to leave and denied access to electricity, heating, health care and water, the UK Department of Defense said. Mariupol officials estimated that about 5,000 civilians had been killed, but warned on Wednesday that, given the magnitude of the devastation in the city, the death toll could be in the tens of thousands. The Kremlin agreed to a ceasefire last week after devastating bombings hit the strategic city for more than a month. A damaged building appears, in the middle of the Russian invasion, in Kharkov, Ukraine, March 14, 2022. (Reuters / Oleksandr Lapshyn) US CALLS “RELIABLE REPORTS” OF PUTIN’S SUPPORTERS DISPLAYING UKRAINIANS TO “FILTERING CAMPS” AND THEN TO RUSSIA However, evacuation efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) came to a halt over the weekend due to insidious conditions. The ICC announced Wednesday that it had evacuated about 500 people from the town of Berdyansk, about 50 miles south of Mariupol, but was not yet able to reach those trapped in Mariupol. City officials have said Russia is barring access to humanitarian aid in Mariupol because of the number of dead Ukrainians left on the streets. The city council further claimed that Russian forces were removing potential witnesses to “filter camps” – a claim echoed on Tuesday by US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who said she had seen “credible reports” supporting such allegations. . CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION The bodies are placed in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. People can not bury their dead due to heavy bombardment by Russian forces. (AP) Thomas-Greenfield said Ukrainians in these camps had their IDs and passports removed, as well as separated from their families. “People have not seen the magnitude of the tragedy in Mariupol since the existence of the Nazi concentration camps. The Russian occupation forces have turned our entire city into a death camp,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said in a statement translated into Ukrainian. Interfax agency. . “This is the new Auschwitz and Maidanek.” “People need to help punish Putin’s monsters,” he said.