By James Mackenzie

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) – As Dmytro Kartavov and his household joined 1000’s of individuals attempting to flee the bombed-out metropolis of Mariupol, one further impediment awaited as Russian troops sought to establish anybody combating with Ukrainian forces defending town.

    “They stripped the boys bare, regarded for tattoos,” stated Kartayov, a 32 year-old builder, who stated the troops paid specific consideration to males’s knees.

“I work, I do repairs, naturally my knees – these are working knees. They are saying – (you) climbed trenches, dug, and the like.”

    Talking in a grocery store that has been changed into a reception centre within the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia some 200 km from Mariupol, he informed Reuters the household left the besieged metropolis to the west, reaching the port of Berdyansk by bus earlier than crossing into Ukrainian-held territory on foot.

On the way in which, Kartavov stated Russian troopers checked males for indicators they’d been combating with Ukrainian forces.

    “They checked my forearms, regarded by the hands, checked if I used to be taking pictures, whether or not or not there shall be a callus right here on the arms,” he added.

    Russia’s defence ministry didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the searches.

Mariupol, an industrial port metropolis near the breakaway Donetsk Individuals’s Republic, had a pre-war inhabitants of round 400,000, however the metropolis has been devastated by common bombardment since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

    Fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces together with common military troops and members of the Azov Battalion, a far-right militia now a part of Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard, have held off the assault for weeks, rejecting Kremlin calls for to put down their arms.

    The combating has killed round 5,000 civilians, in accordance with metropolis authorities, and compelled 1000’s to flee both by non-public automotive or in organized convoys of buses into jap Ukraine the place pro-Russian separatists are in management, or to the north and west to territory managed by the Ukrainians.

    Because the convoys attempt to go away, checks to establish fighters have develop into a daily a part of the ordeal, witnesses stated.

    Vladimir Andreev, a 63-year-old pensioner from Mariupol and former worker of Metinvest metal firm, travelled in a separate group that included his spouse and their pal, Valentina Kirichek.

    Andreev stated the occasion was stopped round 17 occasions at numerous Russian checkpoints.

    “At every checkpoint we have been stopped … We have been checked, undressed. They checked our shoulders, arms … (to see) if I had been collaborating within the combating.”