Ukrainian officials are accusing Russia of turning the country's second largest city into an Auschwitz-style death camp.
Claims have surfaced that allege Russian forces of using mobile crematoriums to cover up what they've been doing in Mariupol.
Mariupol’s City Council said on social media: “The killers are covering their tracks.
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“Russia’s top leadership ordered the destruction of any evidence of crimes committed by its army in Mariupol.”
The Mariupol City Council claim Russian forces have established 'special brigades' to erase evidence of the atrocities committed, staffed by local collaborators and rebels.
The city officials claim the move has come as a reaction to the widespread condemnation of Russia’s actions in Bucha.
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Mass graves and piles of bodies were found after Putin's forces withdrew from the town and the surrounding suburbs of northern Kyiv.
The horrifying revelation has prompted a fresh wave of sanctions against the rogue nation and its most powerful people.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko has accused Russia of killing 5,000 civilians, including 210 children.
The city official said that given the scale of destruction, the death toll could realistically be in the tens of thousands.
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“The world has not seen the scale of the tragedy in Mariupol since the existence of the Nazi concentration camps,” Boichenko said, according to Ukrainian news outlet Interfax.
“Russian occupation forces turned our entire city into a death camp. This is the new Auschwitz and Majdanek.
“The world must help punish Putin’s monsters.”
Earlier in the week, Boichenko said the situation in Mariupol had 'passed beyond the point of a humanitarian disaster'.
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“For the last 30 days, these people haven’t had heating, water, anything,” he said.
“The situation for them is not dangerous, it is unliveable.
"We are trying to co-ordinate with different partners to try to get the entire population out."
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed humanitarian supplies from Ukraine are being halted by Russian troops as Putin's forces fear 'the world will see what is happening there'.
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"They are all afraid that the world will see what is there," he said in an interview with Turkish news network Haberturk and translated into English by Interfax.
"Therefore, we cannot bring in humanitarian supplies. There are not dozens, but thousands of dead, thousands of wounded.
"We do not know how many Mariupol residents ended this life tragically. But they can't hide it. It's thousands of people, it's impossible to do.
"We will see this when we can enter our city."
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/Nexta_tv. REUTERS/Alexander ErmochenkoTopics: Ukraine, Russia, Vladimir Putin
