because the ukrainians are pushing the russians back. but also bear in mind, the russians still have a large presence here in red. and a large presence here. and also, at the start of all of this, since 2014, the russians have been here. they ve been down in crimea. so the point is, these are contested areas. these are claimed by the russians. and then we ve and cnn has just done a masterful job of describing the devastation in the vicinity of mariupol. russia is achieving its objective there. and elsewhere, simply through this indiscriminate firing of artillery, rockets and missiles, at stationary targets. so this is all very contested still. and what we thought might be some significant conventional tank engagements have not demonstrated themselves yet. and we just haven t seen it yet. general marks, thank you so much for taking us through that. we appreciate it. soon, we re also going to be
and so the situation for these people is very, very difficult. are ukrainian forces still fighting for mariupol? translator: yes. ukrainian forces are continuing to fight for mariupol. they as soon as evacuation from other ports fierce fighting resumes and azovstal is currently under attack from tanks, from warships based in the azov sea from planes. they started storming the plant. and this is important to remember that there are still civilians inside the plant. there s still 200 local civilians, local people of mariupol inside the plant. and they re being defended by our brave military. these are women and children. there are about 20 children. and they re waiting to be evacuated. they re waiting for a chance to get out.
defended by our brave service men from the ukrainian armed forces and the national guard. so, we re waiting to save their lives. we re waiting to see them reach zaporizhzhia cisafely, on the w, they collected people from surrounding areas from the village, we ve been able to join these people to the evacuation efforts. so we re waiting for news to see whether these people, these buses, have reached ukraine-controlled territory. an estimated 100,000 people remain in the city. what s the current situation in mariupol for those civilians remaining? translator: the situation is such that the russian army is holding more than 100,000 people captive in mariupol. they are using them for hard labor to clear the rubble that these russian troops created, by their bombardment, to dig graves, mass graves for the people that the russian army killed. over 20,000 people were killed.
they are allowed out to the toilet once a day. so they re kept in inhuman conditions. as for other people, people of working age are sent to the east of russia or to siberia. and we have we ve analyzed population dynamic in russia. and we see that these the areas where mariupol people are being sent, to maritime terr territory, these areas have less population. in the last ten years they ve lost 20%. 10% to 20% of population. so they re replenishing these areas with people from mariupol. and they re making them do jobs that russians are not prepared to do. so we can see that putin is using the soviet playbook. that s what stalin did with deportation and that s what hitler did. so putin is resulting to the
we also have over 600 wounded ukrainians inside the plant. cnn found that russian forces were sending ukrainians to russia against their will through so-called builfiltratio centers you say more than 40,000 ended up in russia that way. some neighbors and colleagues. what can you tell us. translator: yes, i can confirm there are four filtration centers operating in mar mariupol. they re treating people of male sex, men, ukrainian officials, municipal officials or state or government officials. and these people are sent in two directions. officials are put in prison for two weeks or two months. there s no particular logic to this. they are kept in small cells two to three meters, square meters. and they re not fed. they re given water only and