Residents of Mariupol were reportedly deprived of their Ukrainian passports and forced to cross the border into Russia. The Russian version says they were “saved from” the war-torn city.

The authorities in Mariupol write about the forced transfer in several messages on the encrypted messaging service Telegram.

In a statement issued by the city’s mayor on Saturday evening, he claimed that thousands of residents had been deported in the past week.

– Not only did the Russian troops destroy the peaceful Mariupol, they went even further and began to deport the city’s population. Mayor Vadim Boychenko said that all war crimes behind Russia should be severely punished In the current message.

Authorities: Transferred to filtration camp

The forced relocation is said to have started after Ukrainian forces withdrew from certain parts of the city to prevent civilians from suffering. It is noteworthy that the battles were continuous and continuous shelling in the concerned neighborhoods.

The authorities write in Mariupol Telegram messages That residents are first taken to so-called liquidation camps, where their Ukrainian passports are confiscated and their cell phones checked.

They are issued a paper which has no legal weight or is recognized anywhere in the civilized world.you say in it one of the messages.

Russian version: Save the population

In Russia, another version of what is happening is presented. The state-controlled news agency TASS He writes that the Russian authorities established four convoys with 200 buses to evacuate residents from Mariupol.

In another message from him State controlled news agencyColonel Mikhail Mizintsev stated that the residents have fled and are now being provided with professional medical and psychological assistance.

– When they understand that they are safe, the rescued residents of Mariupol openly tell of atrocities and humiliations against defenseless elderly people, women and children, as stated in a press release from Mizintsev State-controlled TASS.

According to the colonel, who heads the Russian National Defense Center, the so-called neo-Nazis in the territorial defense battalions of Ukraine are behind the alleged violations.

Cross-border compulsion

Speak earlier this week The New York Times With Pyotr Andryushenko, assistant mayor of Mariupol.

“Between 4,000 and 4,500 people were forced to cross the border into Taganrog,” Andryushenko said. The New York Timeswho further wrote that the number cited by the mayor’s assistant could not be verified.

The Russian city of Taganrog is located on the Sea of ​​Azov, about 110 kilometers east of Mariupol.

– Passes through basements

The New York Times He also spoke to a Mariupol resident, Dr. Edward Zarubin (50), who fled his hometown on Wednesday.

– Now the Russians go through the cellars in Mariupol, and if they find people there, they take them by force to Taganrog, says Zarubin, who says he knows three families who were forcibly moved.

Photos dated March 17 from what is referred to as the evacuation center in Taganrog show, among other things, the residents to be evacuated from Mariupol.

Mariupol residents are placed in handball halls and schools. The pictures show that the camp beds were set up in a row.

The people in the photos are mainly children and women, as well as some older men.