“Terror that will be remembered for centuries to come” is the siege of Mariupol by Russian forces, said Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, as local authorities in the shattered Ukrainian city complained that thousands of residents had been abducted by Russian forces. and transported to Russia.
“In the last week, many thousands of Mariupol residents have been abducted and forcibly transferred to Russian territory,” the Mariupol city council said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Russian news agencies have reported that buses have carried hundreds of people whom Moscow has called refugees from Mariupol in recent days.
More than 2,100 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, according to Kyiv.
The survivors have taken refuge in basements and are facing a number of shortages. Residents who escaped from Mariupol talk about corpses lying in the streets for days, about hunger, thirst and the bitter cold.
Mariupol is of strategic importance to the Kremlin as its occupation will allow territorial continuity between the Moscow-bound Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and Donbass in eastern Ukraine, while excluding Ukraine from access to the Sea of ​​Azov.
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