Mayor of Mariupol: Russia demolished 1,300 skyscrapers in the city without removing dead bodies

Russian forces occupying the ruined Ukrainian city of Mariupol have demolished 1,300 apartment buildings without carefully removing hundreds of bodies buried under the rubble, Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boychenko said on Friday.

Speaking on the city council’s Telegram, Boychenko – who fled Mariupol to Ukrainian-controlled territory – said people who remained inside the city told him: “Initially, the occupiers involved Mariupol residents in carefully dismantling the rubble.” .

But Boychenko said that when the Russians saw the actual number of bodies found under the rubble, they immediately drove locals away from the area.

“The actual number of bodies under the rubble of the destroyed houses is frightening. Nearly 50 to 100 people were killed in almost every house destroyed, and 1,300 skyscrapers were destroyed in Mariupol,” Boychenko said.

Boychenko stated that as the demolition of buildings was carried out indiscriminately, the bodies of Mariupol residents killed in the fighting were removed to landfills along with the concrete rubble.

On May 25, an adviser to the mayor, Petro Andriushchenko – who also moved to Ukrainian territory – told CNN that Mariupol municipal officials believe at least 22,000 residents of the city were killed during three months of war.

Mayor Boychenko said on Friday: “Unfortunately, the actual death toll in the city could be much higher than we reported.

THE CNN is unable to independently verify the number of people killed in Mariupol, with the free press now unable to access the city and those still inside afraid to speak out.

The Ukrainian presidency described the number of civilians killed in the city as “tens of thousands”.