The Mariupol City Council claims the forced removal of thousands of Mariupol residents to the territory of Russia, about 15 thousand local residents fell under the illegal deportation, more than 6 thousand people have already been taken to the Russian Federation.

"Right now Russian occupants are forcibly removing thousands of Mariupol residents to Russia! Residents of the Levoberezhny district begin to be taken to the territory of Russia in masses. In total, about 15 thousand Mariupol residents have been illegally deported. This is about half of all residents who are still in the Levoberezhny district", - said in a message of the City Council in the telegram channel on Thursday.

According to the city council, the occupiers are ultimatumatically forcing already war-weary people to board buses. There are also reports that the Russian military is taking away people's passports and other Ukrainian identification documents.

"The people taken out are first taken to so-called filtration camps, from where they are redistributed to various remote Russian cities. As of today, it is known that about 6 thousand Mariupol residents have already been forcibly removed to the territory of the occupant," the report said.

Also in the Mariupol City Council informs that over the past 20 days the occupants have been blocking the evacuation convoy and not allowing people to be safely rescued. "Right now the buses leaving Zaporizhzhya for Berdyansk to evacuate Mariupol residents are blocked. Obviously, this is done only to prevent people from returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Despite the fact that this is exactly what the residents of the Ukrainian city want," reads the report.