Cape Town - Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko on Friday said the Ukrainian city is being shelled by Russian forces every 30 minutes, however, the Kremlin is denying responsibility for the bombing of a maternity and children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that sparked international outrage.
According to Indo-Asian News Service, Boychenko said this past week has not been easy in the city of Mariupol as Russian forces were “ruthlessly and purposely shelling residential buildings” in the strategic port city.
“Today, they cynically fired on the State Emergency Services. Every 30 minutes, aircraft flew over the city, working residential areas and killing civilians: the elderly, women and children,” said Boychenko.
He further accused Russian troops of disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid from Zaporizhzhya to Mariupol, and that they’ve deliberately attacked convoys and the “green corridor” for civilian evacuations.
Mariupol’s city council have reported the death of around 1,300 civilians in the last 10 days that has been blockaded.
Meanwhile, Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper reported on Thursday that the Minister of the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereschuk, said during a video conference that no evacuation could take place from the humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhya due to constant shelling by Russian forces.
Vereschuk added that Russia has constantly hampered the planned evacuation of civilians from the strategic port city and called the situation in Mariupol a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
“The worst situation is in Mariupol-Zaporizhzhya. No one has been evacuated,” said Vereschuk.
“Not a single drop of water has reached people who are exhausted from thirst... 300,000 people today are suffering from lack of water, cold and hunger. The aggressor's revenge is not allowing us to save them,” she said.
IOL