According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (44), the strategically important port city of Mariupol is not yet completely in Russian hands.
Mariupol is “a city that continues to resist Russia, despite what the occupiers say,” he confirmed in a video message on Thursday evening. His Russian colleague Vladimir Putin (69) had previously said that the city was “liberated”.
Mariupol was surrounded in the early days of the Russian attack on Ukraine and has been under siege ever since. Evacuation actions for the civilian population repeatedly failed – including on Thursday. The city is now largely destroyed. The Ukrainian side speaks of several 10,000 dead.
“They dig holes 30 meters long”
According to the company, the latest satellite images from the US company Maxar Technologies show “the existence of a mass grave site in the north-west of Manhush”, a village 20 kilometers west of Mariupol.
In this village alone, “the occupiers are said to have buried between 3,000 and 9,000 residents,” the Mariupol city government said on Telegram. “They dig holes 30 meters long and bring the bodies of our residents of Mariupol in trucks,” Mayor Vadim Boychenko (44) said at a press conference broadcast on YouTube. He estimated that the Russian attacks had killed at least 20,000 people since the siege began.
According to Ukrainian sources, nine civilian bodies were found in Borodyanka near Kyiv, some of which showed signs of torture. Russian forces withdrew from northern Ukraine at the end of March. Kyiv and Western countries accuse Russia of war crimes. More than a thousand civilian deaths are said to lie in the morgues in the Kyiv region. The Russian side denies the allegations.
“I don’t want to hear any more bombs”
During the siege of Mariupol, civilians were seldom evacuated from the embattled city. On Thursday, three buses with women and children from Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhia, regarding 200 kilometers away. “I don’t want to hear any more bombs,” said 34-year-old Tatyana D., who arrived with her six-year-old son Maxim. She desperately needs rest and a bed.
Actually, the Ukrainian authorities wanted to bring more civilians out of the city. However, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Wereshchuk (42) explained on Telegram in the evening that this had failed once more due to attacks.
“The shelling started near the assembly point, which forced the corridor to be closed,” she wrote. «Dear Mariupol residents, know that we will not give up trying to get you out of this as long as we have at least a chance! hold on!” (AFP/jmh)
