Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces had captured the eastern outskirts of Mariupol. Control over the strategic port city of Mariupol, which is home to 430,000 residents, has been a priority for Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
residents of Mariupol Have been living without electricity, gas or water for more than a week.
Officials in Mariupol said on Friday that 1,582 people had already lost their lives in the siege of Mariupol. “There is a humanitarian disaster in the city and the dead are not even being buried,” said a statement issued by Mariupol’s mayor’s office.
Reading: The situation in Mariupol turned critical: here’s everything we know so far
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s government accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in Mariupol, resulting in the deaths of three people.
The UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, told The Associated Press that aid convoys are finding it difficult to enter Mariupol. Several such convoys carrying aid have been targeted by Russian shells.
In fact, several attempts to establish an evacuation route from the port city have failed.
Satellite image by Maxar Technologies shows heavily damaged grocery stores, shopping malls in Mariupol on March 9, 2022. AP
The Ukrainian embassy in Turkey also issued a statement saying that a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 36 children, were among those who sought refuge in a mosque in Mariupol.
in his statement on saturdayUkraine’s Defense Ministry also said that the Russian military had suffered “heavy losses” in the “Polysya, Sivorsky, and Pivdnobuzhsky directions”.
“The enemy, having established itself in the northern part of the city of Izium, does not give up efforts to capture it,” the statement said.
“In the Donetsk and Tavria directions, the main efforts of the occupiers were focused on the capture of the cities of Mariupol and Severodonetsk. The enemy occupied the eastern outskirts of Mariupol.”
According to reports, the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol are surrounded by heavy Russian shelling.