The overall number of causalities in Mariupol has surpassed 30,000, which is a dramatic rise compared to the earlier, but no less grim,  estimate that stood at 22 thousand mere weeks ago, said the city council in a statement on Telegram Monday.

‘There is more evidence, that the effects of Ruscists’ crimes are way ghastlier and it will require attention of the international community,’ said city mayor Vadym Boychenko.

The death toll can rise as its still unclear how many people died under the rubble or were buried in improvised mass graves.

Meanwhile, new burial sites have appeared in the war-ravaged city.

Over a last month alone, Russians have dug up 25 mass graves in Starokrymske graveyard where they dumped scores of dead bodies disguising the sites as individual burials.

At least, 16 thousand of Mariupol residents have been buried at three locations near Stary Krym, Mangush, and Vynogradne since mid-April, while 5 thousand more were buried before mid-March.

Mariupol city council called what Russia has done to the city a genocide. In the pre-war time, the city population stood at 432 thousand people