Nearly 200 bodies found in Mariupol basement, local adviser says

The adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, under the control of Russian troops after the departure of the last defenders of the Azovstal steelworks, reported today the discovery of almost 200 bodies in a state of decomposition under the rubble in one of the basements of the port city.

“During the clearance of a multi-story building near the suburban station (…) in the basement about 200 bodies were found under the rubble with a high degree of decomposition,” Petro Andryushchenko wrote in a message on Telegram, collected by the Union agency.

He added that “due to the refusal of the local population to collect and pack the bodies of the dead, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations left the place.”

In this way, the bodies remain in place and due to the partially removed debris “the stench is felt in almost the entire neighborhood,” he said.

He further pointed out that the transfer for the reburial of bodies previously buried in the courtyards of buildings has been practically stopped due to the rules for burial and exhumation introduced by the Donetsk “state corporation” under the “so-called ‘ritual'”.

Thus, “for a free ‘official’ reburial, you have to stand in line, take the body of the deceased to the ‘morgue’ on your own, declare that the body has just been found, or agree to record a video in which the applicant says who was killed by the Ukrainian army,” he explained

“Due to such conditions, a large number of corpses were packed in a makeshift morgue” on the street, he adds, referring to the photos that accompany his message.

He added that “the city has become a great cemetery.”

Andryushchenko called yesterday to evacuate residents due to the risk of an epidemic due to rain, decomposing bodies, and lack of drinking water and warned that “the consequences of turning Mariupol into a ghetto will be catastrophic.”

“Storm drains and clogged sewers cause rainwater, along with debris, the effects of putrefaction, and the poison from the decomposition of corpses, to spread throughout the city,” he said. (I)