BSS :
The “new mayor” of Mariupol, put in place by pro-Russian forces, announced Thursday that around 5,000 civilians had died in the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city.
“Around 60-70 percent of the housing stock has been destroyed or partially destroyed,” said Konstantin Ivashchenko, who was named as the town’s mayor on Wednesday by Denis Pushilin, leader of the separatists in the breakaway Donetsk region.
Cited by the Russian TASS news agency, Ivashchenko that 250,000 people had left Mariupol. The quotes are excerpts from an interview which TASS said would be published on Friday.
