Russia invades Ukraine: Mariupol mayor says more than 10K civilians killed
This browser does not support the video element.
By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
LVIV, Ukraine — UPDATE: Mayor Vadym Boichenko told The Associated Press Monday that the civilian death toll has risen to over 10,000 since the Russians invaded the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Boichenko told The Associated Press that the death toll could rise significantly, noting that corpses were “carpeted through the streets of our city.”
Read the original story below.
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in the city since the Russians invaded, including 210 children.
Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Wednesday that Russian forces have bombed hospitals, including one facility where 50 people burned to death, according to The Associated Press.
The mayor added that more than 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed by shelling from Russian missiles, according to the AP.
Boichenko, who has left the city, said on national television on Monday that about 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the port city, Reuters reported.
Approximately 140,000 people fled the city on the Sea of Azov before the Russian siege began, according to Boichenko’s figures. Reuters and the AP have not been able to immediately verify the mayor’s figures or how he arrived at them.
Mariupol is a strategic city on the Sea of Azov. Capturing it would allow Russia to secure a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, according to the AP.
“The Russian Federation is playing with us. We are in the hands of the invaders,” Boichenko said, according to Reuters. “People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe. We need to completely evacuate Mariupol.”
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A woman pulls her bags past houses damaged during fighting in Mariupol, the territory which is now under the control of the Donetsk People's Republic, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A view inside the Mariupol theater damaged during fighting in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A view inside the Mariupol theater damaged during fighting in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A man walks with his dog near an apartment building damaged by shelling from fighting on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, in territory under control of the separatist government of the Donetsk People's Republic, on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine Damage is seen on apartment buildings after shelling from fighting on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, in territory under control of the separatist government of the Donetsk People's Republic, on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine Satellite imagery of the Mariupol Drama Theater taken before and after an airstrike struck the building, which was being used as a shelter, on March 16, 2022. (Maxar/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine Premature babies who were left behind by their parents lay in a bed in hospital No. 3 in Mariupol, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine An apartment building explodes after a Russian army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A Ukrainian serviceman takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from the maternity hospital that was damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Photos: Scenes from Mariupol amid Russian invasion of Ukraine A woman holds a child in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, March 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)