Status: 03/06/2022 04:49 a.m
Actually, the residents of Mariupol should be safe. But after the failed ceasefire, the Russian attacks continue all the harder. Local authorities report war crimes.
According to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the humanitarian situation in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which has been under Russian fire for days, is catastrophic. MSF emergency coordinator in Ukraine Laurent Ligozat said the situation in the big city was getting worse by the day. It is essential that the civilian population is taken out of the city via a humanitarian corridor.
“The groceries are running out”
The people of Mariupol have “very serious problems getting access to drinking water,” said Ligozat. This becomes a “crucial problem”. Electricity and heating also stopped working in Mariupol. “The groceries are running out, the shops are empty.”
A large-scale evacuation of civilian areas of Mariupol was planned for Saturday. To this end, Russia and Ukraine had agreed on a ceasefire. However, the Ukrainian authorities interrupted the evacuation operation, citing violations of the ceasefire by Russia. For its part, Moscow accused Kyiv of being responsible for the end of the ceasefire and said it resumed “offensive actions” in Mariupol on Saturday afternoon.
“Russia commits war crimes”
Since then, Russian forces have apparently increased the shelling of the port city. Airplanes would also be used, according to the city’s mayor. “The city is under a very, very difficult state of siege,” Vadym Boichenko said on Ukrainian television. “Apartment blocks are constantly being shelled, planes are dropping bombs on residential areas.”
The deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, raised serious allegations against the Russian army in the daily topics. “She’s committing war crimes,” he said. The assembly points for the people who were to be taken out of the city were fired upon. “They want to kill as many Ukrainians as possible.”
“We saw that the ceasefire lasted 30 minutes,” Serhiy Orlov/Deputy Mayor Mariupol
daily topics 11:30 p.m., 6.3.2022
Bombs on residential areas
Residents and authorities in other cities are also reporting stronger attacks. The Russian army dropped bombs on residential areas in the city of Chernihiv. The head of the region of the same name, Vyacheslav Chausm, published a photo of an unexploded FAB-500, a 500-kilogram Soviet-designed bomb, dropped from the air. “Typically, this weapon is used against military-industrial installations and fortified structures,” Chaus said. “But in Chernihiv it is used against residential areas.” The city of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, with a population of 290,000, came under heavy fire from Russian forces. According to official figures, 17 people in the region were killed in the shelling.