Mariupol mayor: Russians deliberately destroyed buses with evacuees

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko says that Russian troops deliberately destroyed the places and the buses with evacuees from the war-torn city, undermining the evacuation process in the first days of March.

“Russians asked us to give them a map where the evacuation would start – we gave them the map. We were asked how many buses we had, we told them the number. After that, they destroyed all those places and destroyed our buses,” the mayor told Reuters.

He said 100,000 people were still trapped in the city, and that soldiers at the Azovstal steel plant, which is the last stronghold in Mariupol, were not going to give up.

“It is important to understand that the lives of the people who are there are in the hands of only one person – Vladimir Putin,”  Boychenko stated.

Russians have been trying to take control of Mariupol, which is a strategic location, starting February.

The city has been fully destroyed.