10,000 civilians dead in Mariupol, mayor says

The mayor of Mariupol said that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the siege of the city by Russian forces. The mayor made the claim in an interview with the Associated Press.

Speaking by phone Monday, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said corpses "carpeted" the streets of the city. He said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies and accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage. He said Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping center where there are storage facilities and refrigerators.

"Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned," he said.

Boychenko said the full death toll could surpass 20,000.

There have been numerous attempts to evacuate the population of the city but those efforts have come under intense fire by Russian forces. Last month, satellite pictures showed a clearly marked Red Cross warehouse in the city had been struck by shelling.

Ukraine President Volodomir Zelenskyy is warning that "tens of thousands" of Russian troops appear poised for a new offensive in the Donbas region in the east. 

"They can use more missiles against us, even more aerial bombs but we are preparing for all their actions," Zelenskyy said. "We will respond." 

Pentagon officials say they've already seen signs that Russia may be resupplying and readying those forces for an attack.

With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities — a strategy that has left many urban areas flattened and killed thousands of people.