Ukrainian workers sifting through the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol reportedly found 200 dead bodies in the structure's basement. Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that the stench of the decaying bodies after they were found spread throughout the neighborhood.

The discovery of the pile of dead bodies is now being considered one of the deadliest attacks on Ukrainian citizens since the war began. It also comes as more horrors come to light within the ruined city, which has sustained massive damage over the past three months.

Mariupol was battered mercilessly for over months until 2,500 Ukrainian fighters abandoned a steel mill where they had made their stand last Thursday. The rest of the city, where an estimated 100,000 people remain out of a prewar population of 450,000, is already under Russian control. Many of them were imprisoned reportedly with no food, water, heat, or power.

According to Ukrainian officials, at least 21,000 people were killed during the siege, and Russia has been accused of attempting to hide the horrors by bringing in mobile cremation equipment and burying the dead in mass graves.

Russian aircraft targeted a maternity facility and a theater where people were seeking refuge during the attack on Mariupol. According to some reports, as many as 600 people may have been killed in the theater attack, more than double the number indicated by Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of engaging in a total war against his nation, claiming that the Russians are trying to kill as many people as possible.

Meanwhile, heavy combat has been reported in the Donbas, the eastern industrial powerhouse that Moscow is attempting to seize. Russian soldiers grabbed control of a thermal power station in an industrial town and stepped up their efforts to encircle and take Sievierodonetsk and other cities.

According to the regional governor, Russian shelling killed 12 civilians in the Donetsk area of the Donbas. The governor of the Donbas' Luhansk region said the region is going through its worst period in the eight years since separatist violence began. Separatists supported by Russia have been fighting Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbas for eight years and controlling huge land areas. The only area of the Donbas' Luhansk region remaining under Ukrainian government control is Sievierodonetsk and its surrounding cities. Despite fierce Ukrainian opposition in dug-in positions, Russian soldiers have secured some areas in the region.

Russian soldiers bombed the eastern city of Slovyansk using cluster bombs, striking several buildings. Fatalities were mostly avoided as many people had already evacuated. The remaining residents have been advised to evacuate and head west. Heavy combat has also been taking place in Lyman.