the Mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has before one Siege “like in Leningrad” warned by Russian troops. “They are trying to set up a blockade here, just like in Leningrad”, explained Vadym Boichenko on Thursday. Russian soldiers would besiege the city and attempt to cut off Mariupol’s electricity, food, water, heating and infrastructure.
“These bastards couldn’t find a way to break us. Now they are trying to prevent us from repairing electricity, water and heating supplies,” Boichenko said. “They destroyed the trains so we couldn’t get our wives, children and elderly people out of the city,” he added. The “Blockade of Leningrad” by the Nazis in World War II claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Russian troops have been advancing on the southern front of Ukraine for a week. On Wednesday, after a three-day siege, they took the Black Sea city of Cherson, which has a population of 290,000. Mariupol, a major port city with around 400,000 inhabitants east of Kherson on the Azov Sea, is currently without water and electricity in freezing temperatures.