Russian troops in Mariupol prohibit burying civilian casualties and exhume bodies that were buried earlier

In Mariupol, the Russian military prohibits burying civilians they killed. Moreover, they are exhuming bodies that were buried in residential areas earlier. The invaders put a guard in every yard of the city to watch over the locals and stop them from burying their dead, reports the Mariupol City Council.

Council representatives believe the Russian troops are doing it to cover up their war crimes. Earlier, Ukrainian intelligence detected 13 mobile crematoria in the city.

According to Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko, over 10,000 civilians have been killed during the city's siege. The final death toll may well exceed 20,000, as “bodies carpet the streets”. The Russian military has been blocking access for humanitarian convoys for weeks, trying to prevent the world from knowing the actual state of affairs in the city, says the mayor. Volodymyr Zelensky also mentions dozens of civilian casualties, saying the Russian army wants to make a cautionary tale out of Mariupol’s destruction.

The invaders are gathering bodies in a large shopping mall with storage areas and refrigerators. “Mobile crematoria have arrived on trucks. If you open the back of such a truck, there is a furnace in which bodies are incinerated,” said he.