Mayor: Mariupol Death Toll Could Be More Than 20K

He says corpses of civilians were 'carpeted through the street'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 11, 2022 2:07 PM CDT
Mayor: Siege of Mariupol Has Killed More Than 10K
A boy walks by unexploded Russian shells in the village of Andriyivka close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Apr. 11, 2022.   (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, with corpses that were "carpeted through the streets." Speaking by phone Monday to the AP, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city 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.

Mariupol's residents have lacked food, water, and electricity since Russian forces surrounded the city, and survivors have described horrific scenes. "Mariupol is a graveyard now. All the neighborhoods are covered in the graves of civilians," an evacuee named Anna told the BBC last week. "It was terrifying. People were sourcing water from a well." Yulia, another evacuee, said, "People are having mental breakdowns. There is a woman we knew who hanged herself. People are being buried in the streets."

Russia claimed Monday that it destroyed several Ukrainian air-defense systems in what appeared to be a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons Kyiv has described as crucial ahead of an expected broad new offensive in the east. In one strike, Moscow said it hit four S-300 launchers near the central city of Dnipro that had been provided by a European country it did not name. Slovakia gave Ukraine just such a system last week but denied it had been destroyed. The Pentagon said it had seen no evidence to support Russia’s claims.

(More Mariupol stories.)

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