Casualty count in Mariupol could be ten times higher than reported — official

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"Unfortunately, I can confirm the information provided by Yuriy Bielousov, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes in the Context of Armed Conflict within the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Indeed, the number of victims is ten times higher than is officially known now. I still don't understand why international organizations record a much lower number of victims than is actually the case, even when it is officially stated in Ukraine. We see an example in Gaza now, they count the actual number of victims, and for some reason the number of Ukrainians killed by Russian terrorists is underestimated in Ukraine," Zabavin said.

He spoke about the criminal actions and intentions of the Russian occupying forces in Mariupol.

"The Russians dropped FAB bombs chaotically, conducting “carpet” bombings and actually destroying everything they saw in front of them. Every Mariupol resident who went through that hell will confirm this. That is, they did not have military objectives, but the goal was to destroy the entire city along with those who were there. Being there with my family, unfortunately, I saw all the horrors caused by the Russian terrorist army," Zabavin said.

Russians are hiding the traces of their crimes, he added.

"When the bombs hit the houses, they simply folded like "cards" and people who were in shelters, in basements, unfortunately, all became victims of these Russian criminal actions. Accordingly, if we count the number of high-rise buildings simply destroyed by the Russians in a chaotic manner and multiply it by the number of victims, we will get this terrible figure. That is why the Russians are hiding the traces of their crimes. For the past year, they have been dismantling the rubble of the destroyed high-rise buildings, blocking it with a fence so that no one could see what they did," he added.

• On November 2, Yuriy Bielousov, the head of the Department for Combating Crimes in the Context of Armed Conflict within the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said that the number of victims of Russian aggression in Mariupol could be ten times higher than the official data available so far.