OREANDA-NEWS. The head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, during a conversation with foreign media, said that the real number of victims among the civilian population of Mariupol could exceed five thousand, RIA Novosti reports.

“To say that it is five thousand or not is a very modest designation of the real number of victims,” Pushilin said in response to a question about the number of civilian casualties.

Earlier, the new mayor of Mariupol, Konstantin Ivashchenko, said that as a result of fighting and shelling in Mariupol, five thousand civilians were killed. In 2014, Mariupol, with a population of about 450 thousand people, was the second largest city in the republic after Donetsk.

On April 6, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, appointed Ivashchenko, a former city council deputy from the Opposition Platform - For Life party and general director of the Azovmash plant, as the new mayor of Mariupol.

According to him, about 250,000 residents left the city.

“Yes, the outflow continues, but I am sure that we have 300 thousand left. The worst forecast is 250, no less,” Ivashchenko said.

Mariupol is the largest city on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. On March 7, the DPR reported that the city was surrounded. On March 12, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, called Mariupol the epicenter of hostilities