Mariupol City Council has announced that thousands of Mariupol residents are forced to evacuate to the territory of Russia, saying about 15,000 residents of the city are being illegally taken there. Some 6,000 residents have already arrived in Russia, the council said.

"Right now, the Russian occupiers are forcibly taking thousands of residents of Mariupol to Russia! Residents of the Left Bank region are being massively exported to the territory of Russia. In total, about 15,000 are subject to deportation. This is about half of all residents who are still in the Left Bank region," the council said on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

Russian occupation forces are ordering already exhausted residents to board busses. There is also evidence that the Russian military is taking away people's passports and other Ukrainian identity documents.

"Deported people are first taken to the so-called filtration camps, from where they are redistributed to various remote cities of Russia. About 6,000 Mariupol residents have already been forcibly taken to the territory of the occupier," the council said.

Also, Mariupol City Council informed that over the past 20 days, the invaders have been blocking the evacuation convoy and do not allow people to be safely rescued.

"Right now, the buses leaving Zaporizhia for Berdiansk are blocked. Obviously, this is done only to prevent people from returning to Ukraine-held territory, where residents want to go," the council said.