JAKARTA - The fate of the 100,000 civilians still trapped in the city of Mariupol is in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mayor Vadym Boichenko told Reuters on Thursday.
He also said satellite images of the mass grave site were evidence that Russia was burying bodies to try to hide the bodies of those killed in Mariupol.
Earlier, President Putin claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol after nearly two months of siege, causing the most intense fighting of the war and its worst humanitarian catastrophe. Under heavy bombardment, residents who did not flee suffered without electricity, heating or water.
"It is important to understand that the lives of those who are still there are in the hands of one person, Vladimir Putin. And all the deaths that will occur after now will be in his hands as well," Boichenko said in an interview.
President Putin on Thursday said Russian troops had "liberated" Mariupol, which would make it the biggest city to fall into Russian hands, since the start of what Moscow called a "special military operation" without targeting civilians.
"There is no plan to liberate the city. It is a plan of destruction," Boichenko said. He estimates that 90% of the southeastern port city has been damaged or destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
"Today at all levels we only talk about one thing, we need a ceasefire, we need the full evacuation of the 100,000 Mariupol residents who are prisoners of the Russian troops and we need to free everyone who is in Azovstal."
While Russian troops now control most of the city, a contingent of Ukrainian fighters is holding out in the underground bunkers of the Azovstal steel complex, along with hundreds of civilians in desperate conditions, according to Ukrainian authorities.
President Putin has told Ukrainian fighters to lay down their weapons and surrender or die.
"The soldiers don't want to surrender, they just want to go with guns in their hands and continue to defend our homeland, our Ukraine," stressed Boichenko, who became mayor in 2015.
Boichenko said he still hoped something could be done to help those trapped in the city, even though a ceasefire deal fell through this week, in which 90 buses were meant to evacuate some 6,000 people.
The city government believes that tens of thousands of Mariupol residents have died since the start of the war, while acknowledging the challenges of estimating an accurate death toll as the fighting rages on.
On Thursday, a review of satellite imagery by US firm Maxar Technologies showed a mass grave site outside Mariupol which has expanded in recent weeks to accommodate more than 200 new graves.
Boichenko said the photos were evidence Russian troops buried bodies to hide the scale of the city's death toll. Russia denies what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, calling them staged.
"That's a fact. They took them and buried them. That's what they did, cynically hiding their war crimes in this mass grave," Boichenko criticized.
The ceasefire agreement has failed repeatedly, with both sides blaming the other. Many of them have fled by private car or on foot.
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