Mariupol police officer pleads for help from Biden, Macron
Mar 19, 2022, 2:20 PM | Updated: Jun 13, 2022, 3:37 pm
Police and military personnel stand in front of a residential apartment complex that was heavily damaged by a Russian attack on March 18, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russian forces remain on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, but their advance has stalled in recent days, even while Russian strikes - and pieces of intercepted missiles - have hit residential areas in the north of Kyiv. An estimated half of Kyiv's population has fled to other parts of the country, or abroad, since Russia invaded on February 24. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian police officer in Mariupol has warned that the besieged port city has been “wiped off the face of the earth” and pleaded with the presidents of the United States and France to provide his country with a modern air defense system.
In a video post from a rubble-strewn street, Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin told President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron that they had promised assistance, “but what we have received is not quite it,” and urged them to save the civilian population.
“Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it has been wiped off the face of the earth,” he said speaking in Russian in the video filmed Friday that was authenticated by The Associated Press. In it, flames can be seen coming from several buildings while others were decimated. Apparent explosions could also be heard.
“You have promised that there will be help, give us that help. Biden, Macron, you are great leaders. Be them to the end,” he said.
Vershnin said the city is facing the fate of the Syrian city of Aleppo that was destroyed in 2016 in a Russian-backed siege during Syria’s revolution-turned-civil war. Russia helped Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government with a ruthless strategy by locking sieges around opposition-held areas, bombarding and starving them until the population’s ability to hold out collapsed.
