Cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol as corpses go uncollected and summer brings warmer weather, it said on Friday. its mayor.

Mayor Vadym Boichenko said the wells had become contaminated with the corpses of people killed during weeks of Russian bombardment and siege, and the collection of bodies by the Russian occupiers of the city was proceeding slowly. “There is an epidemic of dysentery and cholera. It is unfortunately the assessment of our doctors: that the war which has taken away more than 20,000 inhabitants… unfortunately, with these epidemics of infection, will make thousands of Additional Mariupolites,” he told national television.

Boichenko, who is based outside Mariupol, said the city had been placed under quarantine. According to Ukraine, around 100,000 people are now in Mariupol, a once vibrant city that had a population of around 430,000 before the war but is now an urban wasteland.

Boichenko, who said last month that Russian shelling had turned Mariupol into a “medieval ghetto”, said residents were forced to drink well water because the town had no running water or system sewers in working order. He urged the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to work to establish a humanitarian corridor to help residents leave the town, which Ukrainian officials say still lacks a centralized supply of water, electricity and gas.

The World Health Organization warned last month of a possible cholera outbreak in Mariupol. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Friday there was a risk of a major cholera outbreak in Mariupol as medical services were likely on the brink of collapse.

Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population of Russian-occupied territories, he said. Russia did not immediately comment on the claims by Boichenko or the British Ministry of Defence. Moscow says its “special military operation” aims to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.

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