According to Mariupol’s mayor, Russian President Vladimir Putin decides who lives, who departs, and who dies in the city.
According to Vadym Boichenko of an International Media Agency, the 100,000 people who remain in the besieged port city require a permit to move about and a separate one to depart.
Mr. Boichenko further reports that about 2,000 men are being kept in “filtration centres” in Bezymenne and Kozatske and are not being allowed to return home unless they are sick or injured.
“They are being employed as labour to remove the wreckage, gather the dead corpses of those murdered by the Russians, and conceal proof of war crimes,” he claims.
The news organisations have not independently confirmed these statements.
Capturing Mariupol, which is already in Russian control aside from the Azovstal steelworks, will allow the Russians to construct a land bridge between Crimea and the Donbas area, as well as total control of more than 80 percent of Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline.
However, while doing so, they have bombarded Mariupol with artillery, rockets, and missiles, damaging or destroying more than 90% of the city.
Mr Boichenko displays a hefty booklet of Mariupol plans created last year, once a prosperous port with a promising future. It’s covered with glossy photos of parks, sidewalk cafés, universities, and schools.
“I worked there for seven years, giving it my heart and soul.” “He informs an International News Agency.
“My house is there, as is my parents’ house. “They took away everything from us,” he claims. “My heart and soul have left me.”
