At least 5,000 civilians have died in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last month, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Monday.

“About 5,000 people were buried, but the burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling,” Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP during a telephonic conversation.

Lomakina said that the number of people killed since the invasion can only be roughly estimated based on the corpses stuck under the rubble of demolished buildings. “We could be talking about 10,000 dead,” she added.

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Mariupol continues to be the worst hit, with about 160,000 civilians desperately seeking food, water, medicine and electricity in the besieged city. 

According to the country’s foreign ministry, the present situation has been  “catastrophic”, with Russian forces collapsing the city, once flourishing with 450,000 people, “into dust”. 

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According to Mariupol’s mayor, the city now lies “in the hands of the occupiers”. 

“Not everything is in our power,” Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said in a live television interview.

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“According to our estimates, about 160,000 people are in the besieged city of Mariupol today, where it is impossible to live because there is no water, no electricity, no heat, no connection,” he said, adding that “it’s really scary”.

Boichenko further pleaded for a complete evacuation of civilians in order to preserve what little is left of the city.

“Russia has gained most ground in the South in the vicinity of Mariupol where heavy fighting continues as Russia attempts to capture the port,” the UK Ministry of Defence wrote on Twitter on Monday.