Mariupol mayor calls for total evacuation of city after nearly 5,000 killed

The mayor of Mariupol is calling for all remaining 170,000 residents to leave the besieged city after nearly 5,000 people have been killed, according to a spokesperson for Mayor Vadym Boichenko.

Russian bombings have devastated the southern Ukrainian city. The government of Ukraine has accused Russian troops of holding patients and hospital staff hostage in Mariupol, as well as aid workers.

Russia has denied responsibility for strikes in Mariupol, including one that hit a hospital maternity ward, killing three. The Kremlin has also denied what may be the single largest mass causality event of the war, after Russian forces bombed a theater in Mariupol, marked with the Russian word for "children," killing at least 300 people, according to Ukrainian reports. Moscow further denies allegations that Russian troops are targeting civilians.

It is unclear how Mayor Boichenko calculated the number of casualties from the Russian invasion in Mariupol, Reuters reported. His office said that 90% of buildings have been damaged and 40% have been destroyed, including kindergartens, hospitals, and factories in the port city.

About 140,000 fled Mariupol before Russians began seizing the city, and about 150,000 have left since that point, Reuters stated adding that the information could not be immediately verified.

Boichenko, who has left Mariupol, said on state television Monday that "people are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe."

He said, per Reuters, "We need to completely evacuate Mariupol."

Safe corridors to evacuate Mariupol are in Russian control, according to the mayor.

"The Russian Federation is playing with us. We are in the hands of the invaders," Boichenko said.

Refugees from Mariupol described to Reuters the horrific images from the town.

"There is no food for the children, especially the infants. They delivered babies in basements because women had nowhere to go to give birth, all the maternity hospitals were destroyed," a grocery worker from Mariupol identified as Nataliia told Reuters after leaving the port city.

"I also found out today that my son's classmate's parents were torn apart right in the yard before his eyes," she said. 

Residents spent time searching for snow to melt to have water, she added.