Human suffering goes on in encircled Mariupol as evacuation fails
Mar 8, 2022, 7:55 PM | Updated: Jun 13, 2022, 3:38 pm
(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Corpses lie in the streets of Mariupol. Hungry people break into stores in search of food and melt snow for water. Thousands huddle in basements, trembling at the sound of Russian shells pounding this strategic port city.
“Why shouldn’t I cry?” Goma Janna demanded as she wept by the light of an oil lamp below ground, surrounded by women and children. “I want my home, I want my job. I’m so sad about people and about the city, the children.”
A video posted to social media Tuesday and verified by @nytimes shows flattened homes in Mariupol, a key port city in southern Ukraine that Russian forces have surrounded. Information coming out from the city has been limited. W/ @ckoettl @dim109 https://t.co/dA06f2WyTI pic.twitter.com/eb9ebE9mnE
— Muyi Xiao (@muyixiao) March 9, 2022
A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in this encircled city of 430,000, and Tuesday brought no relief: An attempt to evacuate civilians and deliver badly needed food, water and medicine through a designated safe corridor failed, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had fired on the convoy before it reached the city.
Nearly two weeks into the invasion, the Russians have advanced deep along Ukraine’s coastline in what could establish a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Mariupol, which sits on the Azov Sea, has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days.
Mariupol, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, is in a “catastrophic situation.”
Wow.
Chinese media is embedded with the Russian army and going into #Mariupol. pic.twitter.com/90toMk0bpY— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) March 8, 2022
In other developments in the Russian invasion:
— Poland offered to give all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S., apparently agreeing to an arrangement that would allow them to be used by Ukraine’s military. But Pentagon press secretary John Kirby later said the plan is not “tenable” and raises serious concerns for the NATO alliance. He said the U.S. would discuss it further with Poland.
— U.N. officials said that 2 million people have now fled Ukraine.
— Russia’s economic isolation deepened as U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports and Shell said it will no longer buy oil and natural gas from the country. Also, Adidas and McDonald’s said they are suspending their operations in Russia.
This used to be Mariupol, Ukraine.
Now rubble with no food or fuel; people starving and freezing.#inners #maddow pic.twitter.com/YNLbFrQKeE— Johnny Heldt (@JohnnyHeldt) March 9, 2022
For days, as Moscow’s forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians have stumbled amid continuing fighting and objections to the proposed routes. Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s offers of corridors that lead civilians to Russia or its ally Belarus.
A kid who died from dehydration in Mariupol was a 6 year-old Tania who had lost her mother. She was alone in the last minutes of her life, Babel reports. For 8 days, Russian occupiers have kept Mariupol without food, water, heating or electricity.
— Iryna Matviyishyn (@IMatviyishyn) March 8, 2022
The Russian military has denied firing on convoys and charged that the Ukrainian side is blocking evacuation efforts.
One evacuation did appear successful Tuesday, with Vereshchuk saying that 5,000 civilians, including 1,700 foreign students, had been brought out via a safe corridor from Sumy, an embattled northeastern city of a quarter-million people where overnight strikes killed 21, including two children.
Natalia Mudrenko, the highest-ranking woman at Ukraine’s U.N. Mission, told the Security Council that the people of Mariupol have “been effectively taken hostage,” by the siege. Her voice shook with emotion as she described how a 6-year-old died shortly after her mother was killed by Russian shelling. “She was alone in the last moments of her life,” she said.
Mariupol Minefield Thread 1/
The International Red Cross has confirmed promised ‘humanitarian corridor’ offered to Ukrainian civilians trapped in city of Mariupol, had been mined by Russia. Landmines to maim civilians
I need to explain this industrial scale sadistic torture https://t.co/iHjv2uz6KZ pic.twitter.com/qAuEXSHZYz
— Tomi Ahonen Stands With Ukraine. Je Suis Mariupol (@tomiahonen) March 8, 2022
Authorities in Mariupol planned to start digging mass graves for all the dead, though the number is unclear. The shelling has shattered buildings, and the city has no water, heat, working sewage systems or phone service.
Theft has become widespread for food, clothes, even furniture, with locals referring to the practice as “getting a discount.” Some residents are reduced to scooping water from streams.
With the electricity out, many people are relying on their car radios for information, picking up news from stations broadcast from areas controlled by Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists.
Tanya Moroz,6y.o. A Russian shell flew into her house in Mariupol.The shell hit the shelter. Mom tried to close Tanya with herself,she died on the spot.The child was brought to the hospital, but Russian aircraft bombed the intensive care unit of the hospital three days ago. Died. pic.twitter.com/E2pY9qkaQB
— KHARKIV,UKRAINE 🇺🇦 (@whitebabydoll_) March 8, 2022
Ludmila Amelkina, who was walking along an alley strewn with rubble and walls pocked by gunfire, said the destruction had been devastating.
“We don’t have electricity, we don’t have anything to eat, we don’t have medicine. We’ve got nothing,” she said, looking skyward.
Yes, Russia is really using this in the battle of Mariupol.
I repeat: this is real. pic.twitter.com/NQzYoBkTrT— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) March 9, 2022
Across the country, thousands are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in nearly two weeks of fighting. Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas — including around Kyiv, the capital, where a vast armored column has been stalled for days — by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.
Our producer in Mariupol chose to stay when we left. Haven’t heard from her since Wednesday. Her name is Lisa Borienka. Any news greatfully received #UkraineRussianWar pic.twitter.com/MMW38rXaQg
— sean swan (@Irishcamera) March 6, 2022
Late Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video showing him standing near the presidential offices in Kyiv. Behind him were piles of sandbags, a snow-dusted fir tree and a few cars.
It was the second video in 24 hours showing him near the country’s seat of power, apparently made to dispel any doubts about whether he had fled the city.
“Snow fell. It’s that kind of springtime,” he said in a soft voice. “You see, it’s that kind of wartime, that kind of springtime. Harsh. But we will win.”
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Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine