Ukrainian authorities say about 15,000 Mariupol residents have been “illegally deported” to Russia after Russian troops seized part of a besieged port city on the Sea of Azov, according to Reuters.
Citizens who are stuck in a southern Ukrainian city of about 400,000 people before the war are in a desperate state and have no access to food, drinking water and heating, Kyiv warns.
Local authorities claim that thousands of Mariupol residents were forcibly deported across the border to Russia, but did not provide more detailed information.
Russian news agencies have reported that buses carrying several hundred people, whom Moscow calls “refugees from Mariupol,” have arrived in Russia in recent days.
“Residents of the Left Bank district of Mariupol are being transferred en masse to Russia. In total, about 15,000 residents of the city were illegally deported,” the Mariupol City Council said today.
Russia denies accusations that it is attacking civilians in Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin calls the actions of Russian troops a “special military operation” aimed at “denazifying” Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Ukraine and the West, for their part, claim that Putin has started an unprovoked war.
Ukrainian authorities are continuing their efforts to reach an agreement with Russia on opening a safe corridor to Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said at a briefing.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of failing to reach an agreement on the issue, according to Reuters.