The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has advanced that up to «tens of thousands» of dead could be registered in Mariupol (southeast), although he acknowledged that this figure cannot be confirmed until control of the city is regained.
«I think a lot of people died there. We will know what the number is, and it is not calculated in units, neither in tens nor in hundreds. Unfortunately, it will be thousands and tens of thousands of people (…) When we will vacate Mariupol, we will definitely understand what happened,» he said.
Speaking to the media on the occasion of the visit to Kiev of the President of Greece Kateryna Sakellaropoulou, Zelensky reminded that more than 60 percent of the city of Mariupol – one of the first scenarios of armed confrontation between Russia and Ukraine – has been destroyed.
The Ukrainian president pointed out that, if the Ukrainian authorities find graves with dozens of dead in small towns, Mariupol, home to about half a million people before the war, could be home to even larger numbers of dead.
«The answer to this question can be terrible,» Zelenski responded after being questioned about the number of dead he estimates Ukrainian authorities may find in the city, located in the Donetsk region, annexed by Russia in late September after a referendum not recognized by the international community.
