According to the city council, thousands of residents of Mariupol, Ukraine, have been forcibly moved to remote cities in Russia. The civilians were reportedly taken to camps where Russian soldiers checked their phones and documents, and then some of them were taken to Russian cities.
Meanwhile, street fighting is underway in the city center and artillery shelling continues unabated, the mayor said. There is no electricity, water or gas in this city surrounded by Russian forces with three lakh people trapped inside.
Here are the latest developments in the city that has been at the center of intense fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Follow live updates on Ukraine-Russia war
forcibly taken to Russia
According to a statement by Mariupol City Council on Saturday, thousands of residents of the city have been driven into Russian territory by the Russian military against their will.
“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been moved to Russian territory. The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhnye district and from shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombings,” the statement read.
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boichenko said, “The people who are occupying today are familiar to the older generation, who witnessed the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people. It is hard to imagine that the 21st In the century people can be forcibly taken to another country. ”
continuous bombardment
Mariupol is under constant bombardment, The BBC quoted a Ukrainian military official as saying, Local officials have estimated that 80 percent of residential buildings in Mariupol have been either damaged or destroyed. Even a hospital and church have been attacked.
Mayor Boichenko said, “[There is] Street fight in the center of the city. There are tanks … and artillery fire, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area. Our forces are doing everything possible to maintain their position in the city, but unfortunately the enemy forces are bigger than us.”
According to officials in Mariupol, at least 2,500 people have died in the city since the war began. The bodies were left in the streets.
bomb blast
Earlier this week, a powerful air raid on a theater in Mariupol caused hundreds of people to be used ashore. There is no official update on how many people have been rescued and how many are trapped.
According to the city’s mayor, the ongoing fighting in the city also affected efforts to rescue those trapped under the rubble.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba tweeted: “Inhuman Russian war crimes. I want to ask MNCs that are still operating in or with Russia: How can you do business with them? How can we feed, serve and pay for those who have done so?”
These are the ruins of the drama theater in Mariupol, where hundreds of civilians were hiding. Inhuman Russian war crimes. I want to ask MNCs that are still operating in or with Russia: How can you do business with them? How can you feed, serve and pay those who have done so? pic.twitter.com/TCt9EzhKtU
– Dimitro Kuleba (myDmytroKuleba) March 19, 2022
Help blocked?
In the besieged city of Mariupol, food and medical supplies are running out and Russian forces are reportedly withholding humanitarian aid. Residents are rationing food and water to survive.
It is difficult to communicate with the city as the phone networks are only operational for a few hours a day. Residents rarely exit bomb shelters.
evacuation attempts
According to Mayor Boychenko, 40,000 people have managed to leave the city in the past five days and another 20,000 are waiting to be evacuated. He said residents are running in private vehicles.
Efforts to create official humanitarian corridors have repeatedly failed, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking despite agreeing to a ceasefire.
‘Erased the face of the earth’
A Ukrainian police officer in Mariupol has warned that the besieged port city has been “wiped off the earth” and urged the presidents of the United States and France to provide their country with a modern air defense system.
In a video, Mariupol police officer Michael Vershinin told President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron that they had promised aid “but what we got is not enough”.
“Children, the elderly are dying. The city is destroyed and it has been wiped off the face of the earth,” he said in Russian.
(with inputs from AP)