Mariupol has been Moscow’s main target in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Donbas.
The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a team on Friday to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying they were unable to proceed.
“They stripped the men naked, looked for tattoos,” said Dmytro Kartavov, a 32-year-old builder, adding that the troops paid particular attention to the men’s knees. “Let us have no illusions – there are still heavy battles ahead for the south, for Mariupol, for the east of Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Saturday on national television.
Russia denies targeting civilians in what President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “denazifying” Ukraine. “We are just supporting our country in this way. No one will be better off if we are depressed, doing nothing,” she said.
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