Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in southern Ukraine's besieged Mariupol since Russia launched its attack on the city, a spokesperson for the city’s mayor has said, news agency Reuters reported.
"About 5,000 people were buried, but the burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling," Ms Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP by phone, adding that as many as 10,000 people may have died.
Citing data from the mayor’s office, the spokesperson also said about 90 per cent of buildings in Mariupol had been damaged and that about 40 per cent had been destroyed.
Ukraine city mayor Vadym Boichenko on Monday further informed that the city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated adding that about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power.
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) Monday released data on civilian casualties in the Ukraine war claiming that nearly 3,000 civilians have been killed including nearly 100 children while more than 10 million have been displaced since Russia launched its invasion more than a month ago.
(with sources inputs)
