The city of Mariupol had more than 440,000 inhabitants before the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. After a siege of almost two months, it is estimated that around 100,000 civilians are still trapped in the port city.
According to World Food Program executive director David Beasley, these 100,000 people are on the verge of starvation and lack water and a source of heat. The situation in Mariupol remains as serious as it gets. Simply inhuman, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in his daily speech.
“Mariupol, that can be ten times Borodianka,” a town near Kyiv that was devastated after bombing and the scene of alleged abuses during its occupation, hammered the Ukrainian president in reference to the toll. Mr Zelensky and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova had previously said the situation in Borodianka itself was worse than in Boutcha, where many bodies of civilians were found after Russian troops withdrew.
The resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces still present in Mariupol is very difficult to assess. The Russians have claimed for several days that they are holding the port city, which the Ukrainians denied, saying pockets of resistance remained. According to Western military sources, 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were still in defensive positions in Mariupol seven days ago, specifically in a steel mill equipped with deep underground passages. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Ukrainians have contained attacks in the south-west and east of Mariupol, particularly on the port and the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday ordered those last fighters holed up in the metallurgical complex to cease fighting on Sunday at 5am French time and to evacuate the site before noon. Apart from this pocket of resistance, “the entire territory of the city of Mariupol was cleared of fighters of the Nazi Azov formation, foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian soldiers,” he said.
To our knowledge, Kyiv has not yet responded to this call to lay down arms.
Local residents walk past an apartment building damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 15, 2022. ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS