A representative of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said on Tuesday that Ukrainian militants belonging to the Azov Battalion were given orders to kill all who potentially witnessed their crimes before leaving Mariupol.

"The Kiev regime is concerned that war crimes committed by the Azov nationalists in Mariupol would become public to the whole world… In connection with this, before leaving Mariupol, Ukrainian militants received an order from Kiev to destroy all potential witnesses who may testify to the crimes committed by Ukrainian punishers," the DPR representative said at a briefing.

Earlier on Tuesday, the DPR leader Denis Pushilin said that Mariupol's evacuation attempts of Ukrainian nationalists continue.

Russian Investigative Committee probe Mariupol hospital capture

The Russian Investigative Committee opened Saturday a criminal case against Ukrainian militants and mercenaries over their holding of hostages in a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

"A criminal case has been initiated on the grounds of a crime under... part 2 of article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," which is the premeditated capture of two or more hostages committed by a group of people with the use of violence, the committee explained in a statement.

According to the committee, unidentified Ukrainian militants fired at the building of the Mariupol maternity hospital.

After opening fire, the militants seized the building, deployed heavy weaponry, and captured at least 100 civilians, including pregnant women and about 40 children. They proceeded to use them as hostages and human shields.

This is not the first crime committed by the Ukrainian side in Mariupol, as the Azov Battalion, a notorious far-right neo-Nazi group, opened fire on civilians during their evacuation from the city, killing at least two people and injuring four others.

Kiev had previously claimed that hospitals in this city had been the target of Russian attacks, but the allegations were proven false.

Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy revealed that the allegations were false, and he reminded the United Nations that Moscow had warned that the concerned hospital had become a military site at the hands of radicals.

Russia had launched a special military operation in Ukraine due to NATO's eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.