Conditions in Mariupol are “unbearable” and “simply hellish”, they told CNN residents who fled the besieged city in southeastern Ukraine as shocking drone footage and satellite photos emerged showing the utter devastation wrought by Russian bombing.
The Mariupol city council said on Tuesday that about 2,000 private cars managed to leave the city, and another 2,000 vehicles were parked on the main route of Mariupol this afternoon, considering Ukrainian local time. .
The matches took place despite the continued failure to establish safe humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, which has been under siege since March 1.
About 2,500 civilians died in the city, Ukrainian authorities estimate. Some 350,000 people are trapped in the region, with authorities warning that those who remain are without electricity, water and heating.
Two women who managed to flee to the Zaporizhzhia region, some 220 kilometers away, spoke to CNN on Monday about conditions in Mariupol and the daunting journey out.
Lidiia, who did not give her last name for security reasons, told CNN who decided to leave Mariupol after Russian bombing began to come closer to his home.
“We left the city under bombardment – there is no silence in Mariupol,” said the 34-year-old. “Today we talked to our neighbors, they said that the situation is now even worse, so nobody knows if people will be able to leave Mariupol today.”
She said she spent two weeks in a basement with about 60 other people, adding that she only went out occasionally to pick up items from her apartment.
Describing the trip out of town, Lidiia said: “We stopped several times and hid the children because the plane was flying very low, right above us. We were afraid of being attacked. But it was no longer possible to stay in the city. Mariupol is now hell.”
Svitlana, who also did not give her last name for security reasons, told CNN who let 17 people take shelter in her home after their homes were destroyed, she also said she cooked soup in her garden using rainwater.
“When the war started, I didn’t want to leave. But when the projectiles started flying for 24 hours, it became unbearable to stay there,” said the 57-year-old. “My son stayed in Mariupol, I am very worried about him, but he decided to stay. I couldn’t convince him to leave.”
Speaking about conditions in Mariupol, Svitlana said: “There are still a lot of people in the city. I told my neighbors that it is possible to leave, but they are afraid that everything is mined.”
She added: “Yesterday the last grocery store in town was bombed, I wonder how people are going to survive now?”
As the city is reduced to a battle zone, a Ukrainian official accused Russian troops on Tuesday of holding people captive at the Mariupol Regional Intensive Care Hospital.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk’s regional administration, said doctors and patients were being held against their will, adding that one of the hospital’s staff was able to pass on information about what was happening.
“It is impossible to leave the hospital. They shoot hard, we sit in the basement. Cars haven’t been able to go to the hospital for two days. The skyscrapers around us are burning… The Russians have run 400 people from neighboring buildings to our hospital. We can’t leave,” Kyrylenko said on his official Telegram channel, quoting the hospital official.
Kyrylenko said the hospital was “virtually destroyed” several days ago, but his staff and patients stayed in the basement, where patients continue to be treated.
satellite images
Satellite images published by Maxar Technologies on Monday reveal the extent of damage inflicted on the city, including the hospital and several apartment complexes.
The hospital has a hole in the southern walls and debris can be seen scattered around, while the residential buildings show significant damage.
Satellite photographs of the Primorskyi neighborhood, about a mile south of the hospital, show houses in flames after apparently coming under Russian attacks.
Drone footage that also emerged on Monday showed a destroyed apartment complex and thick clouds of smoke rising over the west of the city.
The video was posted on Telegram by the Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist militia that has since been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces. THE CNN geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video.
humanitarian corridors
Several official attempts to establish safe corridors and evacuate civilians from Mariupol have failed in recent days. A large humanitarian aid convoy that was due to arrive on Sunday has yet to reach the city, officials said.
Some have resorted to melting snow and dismantling heating systems to get clean water, Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor, said on Ukrainian television on Monday.
“Most people are in basements and shelters in inhumane conditions. No food, no water, no electricity, no heating,” Andriushchenko said.
On Monday, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s cabinet, said the Mariupol bombing had caused more than 2,500 deaths.
THE CNN cannot verify the veracity of that number of victims.
Also on Monday, Zelensky accused Russia of committing war crimes in its attacks on the city and other parts of the country.
“The responsibility for war crimes of the Russian military is inevitable. Responsibility for a deliberate humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities is inevitable,” he said. “The whole world sees what is happening in Mariupol.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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