Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, stands outside her apartment building in the beleaguered southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 27. (Alexander Ermochenko/Archyde.com)
The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday his city was “in the hands of the occupiers” after a weeks-long siege by Russian forces that razed the city, left an unknown number of civilians dead and forced hundreds thousands of people to leave their homes.
“Not everything is in our power,” Vadym Boichenko, the pro-government mayor of Mariupol, said in a live television interview. “Unfortunately, today we are in the hands of the occupants.”
Boichenko called for the complete evacuation of the remaining population of Mariupol, which numbered more than 400,000 before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“According to our estimates, some 160,000 people are today in the besieged city of Mariupol, where it is impossible to live because there is no water, no electricity, no heating, no connection,” he said. “And it’s very scary.”
It was unclear if there was still active fighting inside the city.
Ukrainian officials have alleged that Russian forces have prevented humanitarian convoys from safely approaching or leaving the city. A pro-Russian separatist leader said on Sunday that some 1,700 Mariupol residents were being “evacuated” daily from the city and its surroundings, but Ukrainian officials say the Russians have actually been carrying out what they describe as the forcible deportation of thousands. of people to Russia.
“We need a complete evacuation of Mariupol,” Boichenko said. “Our most important mission today is to save all lives… And there is hope that we will succeed. For example, there are 26 buses that have to go to Mariupol to evacuate, but unfortunately, they have not received permission to move. And this game is played every day. A cynical game like, ‘Yes, we’re ready. You can drive there,’ but it doesn’t really work.
Our heroic drivers, under fire, try to get to the places where the residents of Mariupol can be picked up, and wait in the hope of having such an opportunity. But the Russian Federation has been playing with us since day one.”
Statistics released by Ukrainian authorities on Sunday paint a bleak picture of the outcome of weeks of shelling and urban fighting in Mariupol.
Destruction in the streets of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 23. (Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)
According to those figures, 90% of residential buildings in the city were damaged, of which 60% were directly hit and 40% were destroyed.
Seven city hospitals—90% of the city’s hospital capacity—were damaged, of which three were destroyed. Three maternity hospitals (one of them destroyed), seven higher education institutes (three destroyed), 57 schools and 70 nurseries, 23 and 28 destroyed, respectively, were also damaged.
Several factories were damaged and the city’s port was damaged.
According to official statistics, up to 140,000 people left the city before it was surrounded, and some 150,000 managed to leave during the blockade. During the height of the siege, some 170,000 people remained in the city, and Ukrainian authorities say 30,000 people from Mariupol were deported to Russia.