in Mariupol, surrounded by Russian forces, the population “has nowhere to go”

Mariupol, martyr city of the war in Ukraine? Besieged since the beginning of March by Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists, the port city on the Sea of ​​Azov now finds itself under constant bombardment. And civilian buildings are not spared. A theater where hundreds of families had taken refuge was hit by a strike on Wednesday March 16. Accused, the Kremlin denied any responsibility.

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For the inhabitants who have not fled this city of Donbass still in the hands of kyiv – they would be around 300,000 according to estimates – daily life takes on the air of a waking nightmare. Russian strikes, which have intensified in recent days, have destroyed much of the city of 450,000 people. For more than two weeks, electricity and communications have been cut off and a few rare places still receive a weak telephone signal.

The population, exhausted, holed up in cellars or makeshift shelters, has no more water or food. Several attempts to deliver humanitarian aid have failed. Some residents told AFP that they had melted snow to drink and cook the little food still available, while they were on the road to reach Zaporizhia, further west.

“The city is now surrounded by Russian soldiers, who are slowly taking their lives, explosion after explosion”writes the Associated Press (in English), the last international media to still have journalists on site. According to the Ukrainian government, more than 2,350 people died in Mariupol. But the number could be much higher. AP reporters thus report mass graves and describe streets strewn with bodies abandoned for at least a week, killed by incessant bombardments, “one every minute sometimes”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose team is still present in the city, also describes a catastrophic situation for the civilian populations. “People are starting to attack each other to get food. They destroy their fellow citizens’ cars to take gasoline” to warm up or cook food, describes the team in an audio exchange dated March 10. “People are getting sick from the cold. They have nowhere to go” and many have no more food for their children.

ICRC members explain “try to do the best” she can in the face of civilians who “Are afraid”. “We try to give electricity through the generator to people in the street so that they can charge their phones. They use them as lights when night falls.” On the strength of these dramatic testimonies, the ICRC warned (in English) on Sunday against “a worst-case scenario” in Mariupol. “History will judge with horror what is happening in this city if no agreement is reached as soon as possible between the parties”insists the organization.

According to the story of the Associated Press, the bombardments seem to have redoubled in intensity over the past ten days and are affecting many civilian buildings. The bombing of a maternity ward on March 9 thus aroused the turmoil of the international community.

The image of Mariana Vishegirskaya, who gave birth to a baby girl after being pulled out of the rubble in her pajamas, went around the world. But not all women were so lucky. In its report, AP thus reports the heartbreaking story of this other pregnant woman, rescued from the rubble, dead a few minutes after having been forced to give birth to her stillborn child because of the bombardment. “The doctors did not have time to ask them their names”writes the American press agency.

On Wednesday, the regional theater of Donetsk was the target of a strike. According to the local authorities and the association Human Rights Watch, several hundred people had taken refuge there, the first evoking “a thousand people”, the NGO ensuring that 500 to 800 people were there. A photo of the building shows the word “children” written on the sidewalk, in huge white letters and in Russian, on the front and back of the building, to warn of the presence of civilians inside. For now, the exact number of victims remains to be determined.

The first testimonies of injuries began to flow on Thursday. One of them, Olga, could be contacted by franceinfo. “I can only tell you that the strike was a little less powerful on our side of the building, she explained, visibly lost. But the ceiling collapsed. I have a head injury, but I’m alive!” She hasn’t heard from her husband yet. “remained under the rubble”.

Ukrainian authorities say those who try to flee are frequently targeted by gunfire. “At one point, there were people trying to flee on foot. A shell fell 50 meters from them”told AFP Yulia, a resident who managed to flee on March 11. “On the road we saw burned civilian cars, sometimes overturned on their side. We understood that the Russians had fired at them.”

Evacuations of civilians accelerated in mid-March. On Tuesday, several thousand people were transported to Zaporizhia, 270 km from Mariupol, again according to the Ukrainian authorities. Until then spared from the conflict, the city was however also hit by several strikes, which damaged the station.