The mayor of Mariupol sees the southern Ukrainian port city exposed to a “humanitarian blockade”. That’s what Vadym Boichenko said on Saturday in a Ukrainian TV show. Russian units shut down all 15 power lines into the city. It has been without power for five days. Since the combined heat and power plants require electricity to operate, you are also sitting in the cold. Mobile communications also do not work without electricity. The water main had been cut off before the war even started, and after five days of war the back-up water supply was also lost. The Russian side acted very methodically in order to cut off the city from any supply and thus create internal pressure.
Due to the increasing shelling and bombing, the number of injured has recently risen into the “thousands”, said Boitschenko. How many people died is difficult to count, since the sixth day was almost continuously under fire. You have no chance to look after your loved ones because the shelling doesn’t stop. It’s about nothing more than “liberating Ukraine from the Ukrainians, that’s how I see it,” said the mayor. Referring to the city, Boichenko spoke of “ruins” and “colossal” destruction. “The Mariupol they knew no longer exists,” he said to the moderator.
At the same time, Boichenko reproached the Russian side. Buses that were supposed to take people out of the city via a humanitarian corridor on Saturday were shot at while they were hiding. From 50 fully fueled buses only 20 are left. “We may not have any buses until the next evacuation option.” The information could not be independently verified.
On the same day, the Ukrainian and Russian sides accused each other of violating the first limited ceasefire in the Ukraine war, which was intended to evacuate civilians from the city of 440,000.
Boichenko said he was pleading for the construction of a corridor to take the elderly, women and children out of the city. The townspeople were devastated. Addressing the international community and European partner countries, he said: “Help and save Mariupol!”