As Mariupol residents flee, Russian forces hunt for Ukrainian fighters

FILE PHOTO: People who flee Mariupol and Melitopol as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, wait around an evacuee cargo truck at a collecting point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine April 1, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) - As Dmytro Kartavov and his family joined thousands of people trying to flee the bombed-out city of Mariupol, one additional obstacle awaited as Russian troops sought to identify anyone fighting with Ukrainian forces defending the city.

"They stripped the men naked, looked for tattoos," said Kartayov, a 32 year-old builder, who said the troops paid particular attention to men's knees.