Mariupol deputy mayor Sergei Orlov detailed the scene in the besieged port city as Ukrainian authorities are still trying to help those and evacuate civilians who fled to the surrounding areas.
“The city is completely destroyed. The city is like a ruin… we are troubled not because of infrastructure but because of people. That’s why we don’t know how to help our citizens who are suffering inside the city,” he said during an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera. “Russia does not allow any humanitarian issue to be resolved, any humanitarian aid to be transferred and our citizens to be evacuated for several days.”
The official explained where things stand in the evacuation efforts and the most recent mission to evacuate Mariupol civilians living in the surrounding areas.
“Once again, I want to clarify, there is no solution to reaching Mariupol, either humanitarian aid, or the evacuation of civilians,” Orlov said. “We are talking about the evacuation of Mariupol citizens, that is, in Burdyansk, near Mariupol, to the nearest villages … who arrived in Burdyansk either on foot or on private cars. A lot of Mariupol citizens themselves and it is about 30 -50,000. Citizens of Mariupol who are currently in Bardiansk and surrounding villages.”
“So this mission helps us and makes it possible to evacuate the citizens of Mariupol from Burdiansk to Zaporizhzhya. This is great. It is absolutely necessary,” he said, noting that there are more than 710 civilians, including 45 children, 2,000 More buses were pulled out.
Orlov said nutrition is still one of the most pressing concerns in Mariupol, as aid groups including the Red Cross struggle to reach the city with food and supplies.
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team is traveling to Mariupol said on Friday that they were unable To help facilitate the safe passage of citizens to reach the besieged city. The team is trying to travel to the besieged city again on Saturday.
“I can’t even describe in words what life looks like in Mariupol,” he said. Citizens “cannot eat … [it’s] Three dishes is normal for us, but three dishes per week. That’s why we eat on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. That’s why we can’t even eat much.”
Mariupol estimates that more than 100,000 civilians are still in the city, all hiding in the hope of being safe. The official said the citizens were living “like rats”.
“They’re all living underground in shelters, in some places below, in bomb shelters, so there’s a chance of survival, not being killed by air strikes, missiles, shelling,” Orlov said. “They are sharing some food with each other, so it is typical meal for a day with a glass of water… one or two cakes, a glass of soup in the afternoon and a glass of water and a cake in the evening. ,
Orlov said the reports of Russians forcibly taking away residents, including children, were true.
“In the Mariupol region, I mean mostly the outskirts that Russia temporarily occupies. They force people to evacuate and even deport.”
In a local hospital, meanwhile, Orlov says there are more than 2,000 children without parents, a reality that would not have existed before the invasion.
“Before the war, before February 24, we evacuated all children without parents to Ukrainian-controlled territory … In Mariupol, we did not have children without parents. If we get 2,000 children, then this How is that possible? So it’s either his parents were killed by Russian, [or] They separated them,” he said.
Watch the interview: