Ukraine has claimed that Russia has forcibly deported thousands of Mariupol residents to its territory and is now holding them hostage in camps.
Kyiv’s foreign ministry spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, made the claims on Thursday and called for Russia’s “barbarity” to end.
Mr Nikolenko’s comments come after Mariupol’s city council said last week that people, including women and children, had been taken over the border as heavy shelling continued.
“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported on to the Russian territory,” a statement posted on Telegram said.
“The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhniy district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing.”
Writing on social media, Mr Nikolenko said: “By forcibly deporting Mariupol citizens to its territory, Russia moves to the next level of terror.
“6,000 Ukrainians already now in Russian camps where they may be used as hostages. Humanitarian convoys fleeing to non-occupied parts of Ukraine still being shelled.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry expressed concern for 15,000 people from a district of Mariupol under Russian control, claiming that Russian troops were confiscating their identity documents and insisting they traveled to Russia.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russian troops of obstructing attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, including by seizing bus drivers sent to collect civilians.
Ukrainian military intelligence said Thursday that Ukrainian civilians were being sent through a “filtration camp” in Russian-controlled territory then onward through southern regions of Russia and then to “economically depressed” parts of the country.
Some could be sent as far as the Pacific Ocean island of Sakhalin, Ukrainian intelligence claimed, and are offered jobs on condition they don’t leave for two years. The claims could not be independently verified.
Russia has said it is helping civilians evacuate from Mariupol and other cities affected by fighting. Russia claims many civilians are keen to find refuge in Russia.
Humanitarian corridors opened on Sunday to enable civilians to leave frontline areas, with almost 40,000 people - nearly 10 per cent of Mariupol’s population - fleeing the city over the past week. The port city has faced heavy shelling in the last three weeks with the bombardment trapping over 300,000 residents who have been cut off from the rest of the world and encircled by Russian soldiers.
Residents were left without running water, food, medicine or power while some had to make makeshift graves to bury their dead.
“Residents of the Left Bank district are beginning to be deported en masse,” Mariupol city council said in a statement, however, Russia still denies targeting civilians.
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