TASTE FOR BLOOD
Horrors of Russian colonel dubbed ‘butcher of Mariupol’ who bombed maternity ward – and ‘gassed kids’ in Syria
THE man suspected of masterminding Russia's devastating bombardment of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been identified as bloodthirsty Russian Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.
Up to 90% of the city, home to 400,000 before the war, has been destroyed or damaged after a month of heavy shelling, according to Ukrainian authorities.
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Dubbed the "Butcher of Mariupol", Col Mizintsev is officially known as the director of the Russian National Centre for Defence Management.
Ukraine has alleged that Putin's general was behind both the bombing of a maternity hospital in the city as well as the shelling of a theatre being used as a bomb shelter by up to 1,000 people.
Sergey Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration, accused the high-ranking military official of ordering several devastating strikes in Mariupol, leading to hundreds of civilian deaths.
"He ordered the bombing of a maternity hospital, children's hospital, drama theatre, and civilian homes," Bratchuk wrote.
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"It is he who is destroying Mariupol, as he used to destroy Syrian cities."
Speaking about the siege of the city, Col Minitsev parroted the Kremlin's line, blaming the "mass terror" in the city on Ukrainian "neo-Nazis" and "bandits".
In a Russian Defence Ministry briefing, he called on Mariupol's besieged residents to "lay down their arms".
He went on: "A terrible human catastrophe has developed.
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"All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.";
However, Ukraine's government claims attempts to establish humanitarian corridors out of the city have been disrupted by attacks from Russia's military.
Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's former Ambassador to Austria, branded Col Mizintsev the "Butcher of Mariupol" as he shared an intercepted audio clip between himself and a junior officer.
A translation of the audio clip tweeted out by Scherba, shows Col Mizintsev condemning a soldier for not wearing his uniform, calling him "scum of the highest order".
He is recorded saying: "Why is his face not mutilated yet? Why hasn't anyone cut off his ears? Why isn't this moron limping yet?
"At night, when he walks out, unknown assailants jump him. Just jump him over and over, beating him in the face with a bottle and then pouring another litre into it."
It comes as...
- Vladimir Putin could face being deposed in a coup as fury grows in his inner circle over Russia's failures in Ukraine
- Russia has lost up to 40,000 troops in Ukraine along with at least 17 commanders
- Fears are growing of more brutal Russian tactics as Putin was accused of using phosphorous bombs
- Russian landing ship Orsk was blown up as it was anchored in the occupied port of Berdyansk
- Apocalyptic footage showed the devastation of Mariupol as the vicious bombardment of the city continues
- Video also shows the moment a Russian tank was blown to pieces as Putin has lost 3,300 vehicles during the invasion
- Britain is now sending another 6,000 anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to help the fight against Russia
Col Mizintsev previously orchestrated Russia's involvement in the devastating Syrian Civil War between 2015 and 2016.
As part of its effort to support Syria's brutal president Bashar Al Assad, Russian forces carried out a series of airstrikes, including the sieging of Aleppo, which left 1,640 civilians dead.
Working as Director of the Russian National Centre for Defence, it's highly likely Mzintsev played a key role in the shelling of Aleppo.
In one single incident in April 2016, 53 people were killed in an airstrike on a hospital in the city.
Russian troops used cluster munitions and barrel bombs in built-up urban areas in Syria to inflict maximum casualties on civilians.
Government forces also reportedly dropped chlorine in Aleppo in a series of devastating gas attacks.
On April 7, 2018, a chemical warfare attack was carried out in the Syrian city of Douma, killing almost 50 people and injuring well over 100.
The attack was blamed on the Russian-backed Syrian Army, although Syria and Russia both accused the west of staging the attack as a "false flag".
It is he who is destroying Mariupol, as he used to destroy Syrian cities
Sergey Bratchuk
Mariupol, a strategically vital port city in southeastern Ukraine, has suffered near-constant bombings and shelling since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.
Apocalyptic drone footage shows the extent of the damage to the city, with one official describing it as reduced to "the ashes of a dead land".
Dashcam footage shared on Twitter reveals a desolate, ruined landscape, with eastern European news agency Visegrad writing: "Mariupol looks like a ghost town."
Human Rights Watch has described conditions in the city as a "freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings".
In a Telegram post, Mariupol's City Council said five out of its six hospitals had been destroyed, with 100 new patients requiring treatment each day.
Doctors work by candlelight in the hospital's basement, desperately trying to preserve the diesel generators they now rely on for complex operations.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties, has called on Col Mizintsev to face war crime charges at The Hague.
"Remember him. This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol," she tweeted on Wednesday.
"It was he who ordered the bombing of a children's hospital, the drama theatre, etc. He has huge experience of destroying cities in Syria."
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Nearly 100,000 residents of Mariupol are still trapped inside the city ruins, according to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky.
In an address to his people on Wednesday, he accused Russian forces of seizing 15 humanitarian workers who were on their way to provide aid to the battered city.
"Sadly, almost all of our efforts are sabotaged by Russian occupants, by [their] shelling or deliberate terror," he said.
"Today, one of the humanitarian convoys was seized by occupants on an arranged route near Mangush."
Speaking in the face of an "extremely difficult situation," one doctor in Mariupol insisted that she remains hopeful.
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"I believe that Ukraine will win and we will return peace to our Mariupol," Larysa said, speaking to the Council's Telegram.
"Together we will begin to rebuild our hometown and our hospital. And we will restore everything."
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