port city is without electricity
Mayor reports of continuous shelling in Mariupol

03/01/2022 12:02 pm

Mariupol port in eastern Ukraine has been under fire for several days. The mayor condoled the killed and wounded. The power supply has also been interrupted. But the city has so far withstood Russian aggression, politicians say belligerently.

In the eastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the power supply was disrupted after the Russian attack. Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Facebook: “The power line was cut in Mariupol, the city is without electricity.” Mariupol and Volnovakha “are under pressure from the enemy, but they are holding on,” the governor said. However, Volnovacha, which has about 20,000 inhabitants, has been largely “destroyed”. Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boichenko said infrastructure, schools and homes in his city had been destroyed. “Many are injured. Women and children were killed.”

Russian forces are currently advancing along the coast of the Azov Sea from two sides – from the Crimean peninsula and from the Russian border. The capture of Mariupol, a strategic port city of half a million people, and Volnovakha would facilitate the merger of Russian troops. Mariupol is to be surrounded later today, Donetsk separatists leader Denis Puschalin said in a television interview, according to the RIA news agency.

According to the Interfax agency, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the rebels in the Donetsk region, is to set up two “humanitarian corridors” for city residents to leave the embattled city. “We guarantee safety on sections of the E58 trunk road in the direction of the Zaporizhia region and in the direction of the territory of the Russian Federation.” Russian soldiers should help in this.

Russian forces invaded Ukraine last Thursday and have been attacking cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv since then. Negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow met in Belarus on Monday for a first round of talks, which ended without success.