The mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, stated that mass evacuations began in the city from the very beginning of the war. In the first week people were evacuated by trains while the railroad was working. During the first seven days about 100 thousand people left the city.
This was told in an interview with the media by Vadim Boychenko.
"We tried to evacuate residents with our communal transport. But it was very difficult to do, because from the first days of March it was like Russia was playing with us. We started preparing for the evacuation, identifying locations, assembling buses, fueling them, motivating our drivers," Boychenko notes.
According to him, the Russian army regularly disrupted the evacuation by systematically destroying the buses. Initially there were 150, then 100, then 50, then 30, 9, 6 and zero. By March 13, all buses that could take people out of Mariupol had been destroyed in the city.
The city mayor stressed that despite this, the administration managed to organize evacuation of Mariupol residents from Berdyansk to Zaporizhzhia. The first such route took place under the chairmanship of the UOC MP. Boychenko believes that this was the impetus for the formation of this corridor, which allowed Mariupol residents to evacuate to Berdyansk and Zaporozhye in their own transport.
"There was no silence regime at that time. It was very hard and dangerous to leave the city. But from the Russian Federation side there was an open space to leave Mariupol, and from our military was also open this space, and so the evacuation began. It has been going on since March 13. And since then we have already evacuated about 87,000 Mariupol residents from Berdyansk either by our own transport or by evacuation vehicles along this route. They go to Zaporizhzhya and then move on from there", - says the mayor of Mariupol.
According to him, there are approximately 70 thousand people waiting to be evacuated on the coast and other neighboring towns and villages. Boychenko sadly notes that in numerous days not a single new route from Mariupol was opened. Both Macron and the Pope, as well as Minister Dmitry Kuleba worked on this issue, but it still remains open.
But the mayor does not give up hope: "We plan to send another route to Mariupol with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and we pray that it will take place. We believe that about 130 thousand people in the city are waiting for evacuation. But time is passing and the situation is very much changing. Russian propaganda is already working in our city and it makes the evacuation process more difficult. It is very important to us that every heart still beating in Mariupol has a chance to get to the controlled part of our state.
Street fighting continues in Mariupol besieged by Russian forces, and the enemy now controls part of the city with a significant numerical advantage. However, the Ukrainian defenders continue their staunch defense.
The city head noted that he is in constant communication with the AFU troops who are holding the defense of Mariupol.
"Unfortunately, it is very difficult. The state, led by Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, is doing everything possible and impossible so that our guys hold on. There is such a steady feeling that two days ago our guys got additional resources to keep holding the city," he said.
According to estimates of the city authorities, Mariupol today is "divided" in two: 50% today is under the control of Russian troops and "DNR" fighters, and 50% is held by Ukrainian fighters.
"But it should be understood that the military forces advancing on our city are very numerous. They quantitatively outnumber those guys who are now defending Ukrainian Mariupol. For one of our fighter there are 10 or 15 military aggressors," Boychenko said.
The mayor also pointed to the systematic shelling of the city by Russian invaders.
"They meter by meter both from the sea and from the air destroy all the infrastructure of the city, burn it to pieces and leave only ashes. And so about 15 meters a day. They attack by planes, by ships. It's very hard for our guys to hold on, but they hold on," he said.
Mariupol mayor Vadim Boychenko said that the Russian military deported almost 40 thousand civilians to the so-called "DPR" and Russia.
"Today we are already forming lists, working through them, checking that these are really our Mariupol residents. And now we already have such statistics. According to our rough estimate, almost 40 thousand people have already left for the "DPR" and Russia", - said the mayor of Mariupol.
He also noted that there are cases when heads of communal enterprises, local workers and even neighbors of Boychenko call him and ask to return from deportation, to which they got not by choice.
