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We had to eat a stray dog, admit people forced into fight for survival by Russia’s ‘Butcher of Mariupol’

A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard near a burning warehouse in Mariupol. People in the city have described huge destruction and residents resorting to desperate measures to survive - Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard near a burning warehouse in Mariupol. People in the city have described huge destruction and residents resorting to desperate measures to survive - Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images

A mother cradles her son, her hand placed protectively across his head as if such an action will stop Russian missiles from killing them.

Photographs emerged on Thursday showing the full horror caused by the indiscriminate bombing of Mairupol by Vladimir Putin’s troops. The city has been reduced to rubble, flattened by carpet bombing.

A mother shields her son on the ground after hearing the Russians shell Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A mother shields her son on the ground after hearing the Russians shell Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

In another image, a little girl in a pink hat plays on a slide - an innocuous photo, except that in the foreground is a makeshift grave. In Mariupol, the playgrounds have been turned into cemeteries.

The senior military figure in charge of the port's destruction has been identified by Ukrainian officials as Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, a man dubbed the Butcher of Mariupol.

In an intercepted phone call made public by the Ukrainian intelligence services, Col Gen Mizintsev can be heard apparently demanding a junior officer’s ear be cut off for not wearing the correct uniform.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who has been dubbed the Butcher of Mariupol
Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who has been dubbed the Butcher of Mariupol

“Look at that scum standing there, frowning with his bovine eyes, showing me his unhappy face, his stinking mug,” says Col Gen Mizintsev. “Why is he still serving? And why should I have to waste my time with your scum? If you’re the head of a unit, then step up to the plate. Why has his face not been messed up? Why has his ear not been cut off? Why is he not limping by now?”

Aged 59, Col Gen Mizintsev reportedly oversaw the bombing of Aleppo in Syria. Now the head of Russia’s National Centre for Defence Management, he has become a familiar figure on Russian television offering safe passage if Mariupol waves the white flag. Local officials who stay face “military tribunals” along with the “bandits” left behind, he warns.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused the Kremlin of putting in place plans to forcibly relocate thousands of civilians in Mariupol to Russia. It said more than 6,000 residents had been captured by Russian forces "to use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine”, while 15,000 people from one district in the city have reportedly had their identity documents seized and ordered to go to Russia.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the civilians are being funnelled through "filtration camps" before being sent on to "economically depressed" southern regions of Russia. Some could be sent as far away as the Pacific Ocean island of Sakhalin.

A Russian soldier stands by a queue for humanitarian aid in Mariupol. Russia is reportedly taking thousands of residents from the city hostage - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A Russian soldier stands by a queue for humanitarian aid in Mariupol. Russia is reportedly taking thousands of residents from the city hostage - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

One makeshift grave in Mariupol is newly dug on the edge of a children’s playground. The cardboard sign attached to the cross, made from scraps of wood, gives the name Antonina Alekseevna Bakhchisaray. She was born on May 15 1928 and died nine days ago.

She had survived the Second World War and the terrors of Stalin’s Soviet Union, only to be killed at the age of 93 in a conflict ordered by Putin.

It is thought about 2,000 civilians have now been killed in Mariupol. About 100,000 people are trapped there.

Through social media, The Telegraph has been able to contact some remaining residents who have either left in recent days or remain trapped. One claimed they had been forced to eat a stray dog to stave off hunger.

Alexandr Volodko, 21, a student, said: “We spotted a stray dog, it was already not doing well. We were so desperate we cooked it. We were starving and I am ashamed to say it.”

His mother is ill and his father went missing a week ago. He said it was his job to feed the family. He was able to find a mobile phone signal by stepping outside, in itself a dangerous activity. The fate of many of his friends is unknown.

Children play in front of a bombed out apartment block in Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Children play in front of a bombed out apartment block in Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Yevheniia Kudria, 24, who managed to escape Mariupol a matter of days ago, said her mother had stayed in the city, too scared to leave.

“She says that there is the smell of corpses and the smell of burning in the air. People are simply buried in front gardens near houses,” said Ms Kudria. Her mother has told her of residents being rounded up by Russians and put on buses, backing up claims made by Ukraine authorities.

“If my mother leaves, we may never meet again,” said Ms Kudria. She had witnessed “many corpses, torn body parts, huge damage, burning cars” before she left.

“People just lived in the walls left, slept on the floor and ate once a day,” she said. “There were many children, the elderly. There were people under the ruins, people were dying in front of us, there were no doctors.”

A woman at the grave of her mother, who was killed by Russian shelling in Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A woman at the grave of her mother, who was killed by Russian shelling in Mariupol - Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Some pictures from Mariupol have been taken by Maximilian Clarke, a British photographer. He had worked in Donetsk and eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, during the last war. Using contacts made then with the Russian-backed separatists, he succeeded in obtaining accreditation to work in the separtist-held region. From there, he could travel to Mariupol.

"People have been sheltering from the absolute intensity of the bombardment for weeks,” Mr Clarke said on Thursday, describing scenes that were “very dark and full of panic”.

“Yesterday when we went in, we saw people who weren't leaving for whatever reason,” he added. “Many of them have got no money or cars. They’re making fires and cooking whatever food they have outside their bombed out apartments."

“No one is mentally intact there,” he said. He had taken a photo of an apartment building in ruins, a huge crater in front. "This constant sound of artillery falling. It could make someone unfamiliar with incoming artillery fire jump,” he said. “But all those people were just sitting there. They weren’t even flinching.

"They said it was an air strike, presumably Russian. It’s utter destruction. It’s pretty incomparable to anything I’ve seen before."