For 3,000 civilians killed during its siege Mariupoli say Russian officials, in the first official assessment released by Moscow, months after fighting in the city ended.
According to the calculations of the Russian Investigative Committee, the damage done to the city during the siegewhich ended with the occupation of the entire city by the Russian army, have a cost of approximately 2.24 billion euros.
Moscow blames her Ukraine for civilian deaths and disasters. International human rights organizations instead blame the Russian armed forces, which they accuse of many war crimes during the battle to capture Mariupol, which since then Russia announced that it is annexing, a move that is not recognized by the international community.
The battle for Mariupol, in the Donetsk region, began in February and ended when Russian troops captured the last remaining Ukrainian soldiers in May.
Kyiv, for its part, is talking about tens of thousands of civilian dead from the artillery barrages and the humanitarian crisis caused by the siege.
The European Union and the United Nations have also spoken out about war crimes by Russia’s armed forces during the battle of Mariupol.
Moscow blames Ukrainian forces. The Russian commission of inquiry under Alexander Bastirkin, a confidant of Vladimir Putin, said that 3,000 civilians were killed by the Ukrainian army.
The massive destruction of civilian infrastructure in Mariupol was due to the fact that Kiev troops were using houses and hospitals for military purposes, the committee further argued after a meeting in the occupied city.
Source: News Beast
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