Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the bombing of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol will only stop when Ukrainian forces surrender.
Putin’s comments came during an hour-long phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday evening, according to a statement issued by the Kremlin.
But Russian officials said the Russian leader had agreed to study plans to evacuate civilians from the city.
This comes at a time when new satellite images have shown the extent of the destruction caused by the Russian bombing of the city.
The images, published by the Earth observation company “Maxar”, showed that residential areas were leveled, and highlighted the locations of Russian artillery on the outskirts of the city.
It is believed that about 40 percent of residential buildings in the city of Mariupol were destroyed by Russian bombing.
French officials described the situation in the city as “catastrophic” and added that “the civilian population must be protected and must leave the city if they wish to do so, and must receive the food aid, water and medicine they need.”
“This deteriorating humanitarian situation is linked to the siege of the city by the Russian armed forces,” they said in a statement.
France, along with Turkey, Greece and several humanitarian organizations, presented Putin with a plan to evacuate the city.
French officials said Putin told Macron he would “consider” the proposal.
The mayor of Mariupol said that about 5,000 residents of the city were killed in the Russian attack.
But in reading the phone call, the Kremlin seemed to indicate that Putin had not offered such guarantees.
Russian officials said Putin told the French president that “in order to resolve the difficult humanitarian situation in the city, the armed Ukrainian nationalists should stop resisting and lay down their arms.”
The Russian statement added that Putin gave Macron “detailed information about measures taken by the Russian army to provide emergency humanitarian assistance and ensure the safe evacuation” of civilians from the besieged city in the southeast of the country.
Ukraine has accused Russia of forcibly moving thousands of people from Mariupol to a Russian-controlled area.
Positions of Ukrainian artillery in the vicinity of the city of Mariupol.
The phone call between the Russian and French presidents followed allegations by the mayor of the city of Mariupol that thousands of residents were killed during the Russian bombing of the coastal city.
Mayor Vadim Boychenko, who was evacuated from the city, told Archyde.com news agency that about 5,000 people, including about 210 children, had been killed since the beginning of the Russian bombing.
Matilda Bogner, head of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine, told Archyde.com she believed there “could be thousands of dead, civilian casualties, in Mariupol”.
Russian bombing continues
On the other hand, the governor of Ukraine’s Tishrekhiv region confirmed that Russia’s attacks will not stop, despite its pledge to reduce military activity there.
Governor Vyacheslav Chus used the messaging app Telegram to condemn the Russian pledge.
“Do we trust their pledge? Of course not,” he said, adding that Russia bombed Chernihiv “all night.”
The Kremlin said Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had made “no progress” in Tuesday’s peace talks.
On Tuesday, Russia said it would reduce its operations around Chernihiv and the capital, Kyiv, in an attempt to “enhance mutual trust” in peace talks.
But the governor of the Chernihiv region told the BBC that “the whole night was very tense”.
“They attacked Nizhin and Chernihiv. In particular, Chernihiv. Once again part of the civilian infrastructure was destroyed,” he said.
“Chernihiv is still without electricity, water, or heating. It will not be easy to restore the infrastructure, and no military buildings were targeted last night. They only continued the attack on civilian infrastructure,” he added.
The BBC was unable to independently verify this information, but residents of Chernihiv also said the fighting was still going on.
