Russian offensive continues, Mayor of Mariupol calls for help
According to a Facebook post by the Ukrainian General Staff on Sunday, the Russian army continues its offensive, “concentrating its main efforts in the area of the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Nikolaev.”
The situation in Mariupol is “very difficult” due to a “humanitarian blockade” and heavy bombardment, said Vadim Boychenko, the mayor of the strategic southeastern port under siege by Russian forces. “We have been living without electricity for five days, we have neither heating nor mobile communications,” Boichenko said in an interview that was broadcast on YouTube on Saturday evening.
As a result of shelling over the past few days, “thousands of people have been injured” and Russian forces have prevented the delivery of food and medicine, he said. “The city of Mariupol no longer exists,” he said. “I ask our American and European partners: help us, save Mariupol! »
The fall of Mariupol, a city of about 450,000, will be a turning point. This would allow troops coming from the annexed Crimea, which have already occupied other key ports of Berdyansk and Kherson, to connect with Donbass troops, and then these combined forces to rise towards the center and north of Ukraine.