School kids in Mariupol area told to write on notebook covers they are in Russia, mayoral adviser says

School students in the Mangush and Nikolskoye districts of Ukraine's Donetsk region are forced to write on the covers of their notebooks they are studying in the Rostov region, Peter Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, reports on his Telegram channel.

«Now schoolchildren in the Mangush and Nikolskoye districts are also told to write »Rostov region» on their notebooks, the adviser says.

Earlier it was reported Russia is considering the incorporation of the occupied regions in southern Ukraine into Crimea. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported Russia had already prepared official seals for the occupation administrations of Mariupol.

On May 3, the Russian military began storming the half-destroyed Azovstal factory buildings, where Mariupol defenders and hundreds of civilians are sheltered, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin calling the storming of the Azovstal industrial zone inadvisable and ordering its cancellation to «save lives» of the Russian military.

The siege of Mariupol has been continuing for two months. The city's mayor, Vadim Boychenko, reported that during that time more than 10,000 civilians had been killed, the actual number probably exceeding 20,000. Russian troops have been blocking convoys with humanitarian aid from entering the city for weeks, trying to hide what's happening there from the outside world, Boychenko added. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian army wants to make an example of destroyed Mariupol.