Residents of Mariupol from the Left Bank district, which is under siege by Russian army and ongoing strikes of bombs and fired missiles daily, are started being deport to Russia by occupiers en masse.
As reported by the City Council of Mariupol, as of March 24, a total of about 15,000 Mariupol residents were deported illegally. This is about half of all residents who are still in the Left Bank district.
"It is known that the occupiers without the choice force people who are already exhausted by the war to get on buses. It is known that the Russian occupiers confiscate people's passports and other Ukrainian identity documents. First the deported people are taken to so-called “filtration” camps and after to various cities of Russia in remote areas. Today it is known that about six thousands residents of Mariupol have already been illegally taken to the territory of the occupier, "- said in a statement.
The civilians killed by the Russians in Mariupol are buried in kids’ playgrounds
Despite that Russia regularly announces possible evacuation of people to the territory controlled by Ukraine. Actually it is not the case according to the City Council of Mariupol. For the past 20 days the occupiers have been blocking the evacuation convoy and preventing the safe rescue of people.
Now the buses that left Zaporizhia for Berdyansk to evacuate residents of Mariupol are blocked.
"Obviously, this is done to prevent people from returning to the area controlled by Ukraine. Despite the fact that’s what the residents of the Ukrainian city want," - said the Ukrainian authorities in Mariupol.
“What the Russian occupiers are doing is inexplicable. First they blockade a peaceful city, deliberately start killing people, and then forcibly deport them. Ukraine experienced this only during the World War II. Unfortunately history repeats itself. Only now instead of nazis there are rashyst [russian fascist]. We are currently forming a database of deported Mariupol residents and will work on their return to Ukraine," - said the Mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boichenko.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister of Reintegration of Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk, every day the Ukrainian authorities try to evacuate three to four thousands of people from Mariupol that are leaving the city by foot. Sometimes they have to walk 10 to 20 kilometers.