The mayor of Mariupol said the number of civilians killed in the city was more than 5,000.
Ukrainian authorities are collecting the dead and continuing to gather information on possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskysaid in the early hours of the morning that Russia would not be able to abdicate its responsibility for the large number of Ukrainian civilians killed in the war.
“We already know that there are thousands of missing persons,” he said in a statement uploaded to the Telegram platform, adding that he believed there were only two scenarios for their fate: either they were deported to Russia or they were killed.
According to the head of state of Ukraine, Moscow changed its tactics after the international outcry over the hundreds of bodies found in Boutsa, a suburb of Kiev that was recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces.
According to him, the Russian troops are now taking care of removing the bodies of civilians who are being killed in the streets and underground. However, Mr. Zelensky added that investigations will be carried out, satellite photos and eyewitnesses will be used to determine the fate of the missing.
Mr Zelensky reiterated that Moscow was mobilizing forces to launch a large-scale offensive in Donbas and called on citizens living in Lugansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv to leave.
“If Russia does not seriously seek to restore peace, Ukraine will continue to ‘fight,’ ‘it will not back down,'” he said.
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