Mayor of Mariupol: Russian troops have forcibly deported between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians

Olena Roshchina – Sunday, 27 March 2022, 07:55

Vadym Boychenko, the Mayor of Mariupol, said that 50% of Mariupol residents have been evacuated. Around 60,000 left via the humanitarian corridors to the territories of Ukraine controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and another 20,000 to 30,000 have been deported by Russian troops to the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine or to Russia.

Source: Vadym Boychenko, the Mayor of Mariupol, in an interview with UNIAN

According to Boychenko: "Today we can speak of the evacuation of 50% of Mariupol residents out of the 540,000 people that lived here before the war.

When the war had just started and while the train service was still running and the roads could still be used, nearly 140,000 civilians left Mariupol. Then another 100,000 left. An additional 60,000 were evacuated via the humanitarian corridor and with the help of volunteers. But we have to remember that there are people on the outskirts of the city that also need to be evacuated.

Since the sixth day of the war, we have been trying to do everything we can to organise an evacuation route. But the Russian forces have been, and still are, doing everything they can to make sure there is not a single bus available in Mariupol. They have reduced 150 new buses to ashes."

Details: Boychenko said that utility service workers and volunteers in the city were announcing when it was possible to leave via a humanitarian corridor. There has never been a ceasefire – people have been leaving with shells exploding all around them.

"Some people drove, others just walked towards the coast. From there we evacuated people first to Berdiansk, and then from there to Zaporizhzhia, with volunteer convoys or by sharing rides with others," the Mayor recounted.

3,500 people have been evacuated since 25 March.

However, the number of Mariupol residents who have been forcibly deported to Russia is only an estimate for now.

According to Boychenko: "Currently they [the Russians] are publishing lists, but they cannot be trusted. According to our estimates, it could be between 20,000 and 30,000 Mariupol residents.

It is difficult to say why they are doing this. But, for example, yesterday my neighbour, who was forcibly deported, phoned me. He went to fetch water and was taken away. He is currently in Russian-occupied Novoazovsk.

Some people are being taken to Russia. Suppose a train is loaded, it leaves…for Tomsk. What’s the logic here? It’s difficult to understand.

People are still frightened and are afraid to speak. They do not understand what will happen to them next. Not all of them have mobile phones or documents with them. My friend’s parents called him, but were whispering into the phone. You have to understand, someone might have spent 20 days in a basement, and is now being taken away god knows where."

Details: Boychenko said that the deported Mariupol residents "are not being spoilt". People are corralled into schools and their information is taken.

When asked whether Russia will let the forcibly deported Ukrainians leave for other countries, especially given the fact that most of them do not have documents, Boychenko said that this question falls within the remit of Iryna Vereshchuk, the appropriately qualified minister.

The Mayor also spoke of instances of hostage-taking during the evacuation: "There is a checkpoint near the town of Manhush controlled by traitor police personnel who have defected to the Donetsk People’s Republic. Recently a family was kidnapped at the Manhush checkpoint. Right now, peaceful civilians are being held in prison for ransom. This is a reality. There are many examples of this."

Earlier: The media reported, citing a resident of the occupied city of Donetsk, that Russian troops have deported orphans from Mariupol who have ended up in a Donetsk hospital.