City officials have warned of a “critical” situation for residents trapped under heavy fire without electricity, heating or water. It is not clear how many of the approximately 400,000 Mariupol residents managed to evacuate the port city or how many were killed or injured.
Russia’s attack on Mariupol comes as its forces also fight for control of the Black Sea city of Kherson. The mayor of Kherson said during the night that Russian forces had taken control of the city of about 300,000 people, although the allegations remain disputed.
Progress in southern Ukraine shows that Russian forces are trying to build a potential land bridge that could connect the port city of Odessa to the west, through Kherson and Mariupol, with separatist-held pro-Moscow territories to the east.
Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told CNN’s Nov Den that the city is now “surrounded” by Russian forces and in desperate need of military and humanitarian aid.
“Our Ukrainian army and national guard are very brave, they stand and fight for Ukraine, for Mariupol. But the situation is quite critical,” Orlov said on Thursday.
“We are asking for help, for military aid, and we are waiting for military aid,” Orlov said. “Our internal forces are very brave, but we are surrounded by the Russian army, which has more people in its army.”
He warned that the city was facing a humanitarian crisis after saying there had been 26 hours of continuous shelling.
“They are destroying our city with all weapons, from artillery, from air bombing, from tactical missiles, from rocket-propelled grenade launchers,” Orlov said.
“We don’t have electricity in the whole city, we don’t have water pipes, we don’t have sanitary systems, we don’t have heating.”
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko accused the Russian military of creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the city in a post on his Telegram account on Thursday.
“These scum have found no other way to break us. They block the supply and repair of electricity, water and heat. The railways were also damaged. They destroyed bridges and smashed trains so we couldn’t evacuate women, children. and the elderly from Mariupol, “he said.
“They are blocking food supplies, they are blocking us like in the former Leningrad [during World War II], deliberately destroying the city’s vital infrastructure in seven days. Again, we have no light, no water, no heat. ”
He said the city is “working with international institutions to create a” green corridor “for the humanitarian mission” and is seeking a ceasefire so that electricity supplies can be restored. The Russian military announced progress in the Mariupol area on Thursday. in the morning.
“Units of the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic have narrowed the encirclement of the city of Mariupol, and also taken control of the settlements of Vinogradnoye, Sartak and Vodyanoye,” said Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. said at a video briefing. He reiterated allegations that the military is not targeting civilian areas in Ukraine.
A day earlier, Konashenkov outlined an evacuation corridor from Mariupol. “All civilians wishing to leave Mariupol for security purposes can head east on Mariupol-Shirokino [Shyrokyne] road, “he said.
Russia regularly denies causing civilian casualties in Ukraine. However, CNN and other media and observers have documented in detail civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.
Orlov said the Russian shelling targeted a number of civilian buildings, including homes, kindergartens and schools, but warned that the number of civilian casualties in the city remained unclear.
“We don’t know how many, because we can’t collect all the bodies and we can’t count,” Orlov said.
Mariupol is located just west of the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, which has been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. The Russian government recognized the breakaway statesmen of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in Donbass last month.
“It is clear that Putin is pushing for a land corridor to Crimea. I want to say that this is an obvious goal, “former NATO Deputy Commander-in-Chief for Europe Richard Shearef told CNN. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
Shiref said he feared the latest shock could cause a humanitarian catastrophe as civilian deaths rise and cities become ruins.
CNN’s Tim Lister and Olga Voitovich reported from Kyiv. CNN’s Nathan Hodge, Nick Peyton Walsh, Natalie Galen, Nada Bashir and John Berman contributed to the report.
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