The mayor of Mariupol is warning the besieged southern port city is on the cusp of a humanitarian catastrophe after incessant Russian attacks and amid dire shortages of food, water, power and other essentials. Mariupol’s mayor says 160,000 civilians are trapped and that Russian forces are blocking safe exit routes to evacuate them. Meanwhile, the U.N. says there is mounting evidence of mass graves in Mariupol. On Sunday, lifelong Mariupol resident Valentina assessed the situation in the city, which has largely been left in ruins.
Valentina: “I have lived here since my birth, and my husband, as well. We got married here and had babies. What now? What is left for us? I don’t want to go anywhere from Mariupol, but there’s nowhere to live here.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said last week 6,000 Mariupol residents had been “forcibly deported” and taken to Russia as “hostages.” President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of kidnapping over 2,000 Ukrainian children since the start of the war.
Russia continued its assault on other parts of Ukraine over the weekend, including airstrikes on Chernihiv and cruise missile attacks on Lviv in western Ukraine that came as President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland.