Ukraine war: Thousands evacuated from Mariupol as city being 'wiped off face of earth' by Russian shelling - Sky News

Thousands more people have been successfully evacuated from besieged Ukrainian cities, including the port of Mariupol which authorities say is being "wiped off the face of the earth" by Russian shelling.

Some 6,623 people were moved out via humanitarian corridors on Saturday, but this was substantially down on the 9,145 who managed to leave yesterday.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, said in an online post that 4,128 more people had left the devastated southeastern city of Mariupol as Russian forces continue their advance.

More than 350,000 people have been sheltering there with no access to food or water, as the Kremlin said its forces were "tightening the encirclement" after bombarding and cutting it off from the Sea of Azov.

The fall of Mariupol would mark a major battlefield advance for Vladimir Putin's troops, who are mostly bogged down outside major cities in what is now the fourth week of the war.

It would mean Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, could be linked in a land bridge to territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east.

Other key developments from Ukraine:

• Russia fires 'hypersonic missile' for first time since invasion
• Dozens of troops feared dead in attack on barracks as they slept
• Russian cosmonauts wear Ukrainian colours while boarding space station
• Extraordinary survival as man rescued after hours under debris
• Boris Johnson claims Putin in a 'panic' over revolution in Moscow

Russia claims use of 'apocalyptic war weapon' - live updates from Ukraine

Image: Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle in Mariupol

'The city is destroyed'

Mariupol has been left unrecognisable by brutal Russian tactics, with buildings from apartment blocks to shopping centres having been completely destroyed.

"Children, elderly people are dying," Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin said, as he pleaded for more Western assistance to arrive.

"The city is destroyed, and it is wiped off the face of the earth."

Image: The theatre was bombed in the reported Russian airstrike

Image: At least 130 people are thought to have survived but there is 'no information' about 'more than 1,300' others

Rescuers have continued searching for survivors in the ruins of a Mariupol theatre destroyed three days ago by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian airstrike.

The basement was being used by families as a bomb shelter in the besieged city, with more than 1,300 people said to have been inside at the time of Wednesday's attack, which Moscow denies carrying out.

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Remains of bombed Mariupol theatre

So far, at least 130 people are reported to have survived, but there is "no information" about the others.

The theatre was struck, despite the word "children" being written in Russian outside in letters large enough to be read from the air.

Image: A satellite image shows the theatre before the attack - with the word 'children' written in Russian in giant letters at both ends of the building. Pic: Maxar

Read more: Inside the devastated city of Mariupol

Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights commissioner, said: "According to our data, there are still more than 1,300 people in these basements, in this bomb shelter.

"We pray that they will all be alive, but so far there is no information about them."

Image: The situation in Ukraine as of Saturday

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been battling over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, according to Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister.

"I can say that we have lost this economic giant. One of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is actually being destroyed," he said.

And Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the nearest forces that could help Mariupol's defenders were already struggling against "the overwhelming force of the enemy" at least 60 miles (100km) away.

"There is currently no military solution to Mariupol."

Videos posted online of Mariupol - subjected to weeks of siege and shelling which the Red Cross says has caused "apocalyptic" destruction - show civilian areas left unrecognisable by the attacks.

In its latest intelligence assessment of the war, the UK's Ministry of Defence said the Kremlin "has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance" and "is now pursuing a strategy of attrition" likely to involve indiscriminate attacks.

Russian forces were blockading the biggest cities with the aim of wearing Ukrainians down so much they will cooperate, according to Mr Zelenskyy, who accused Moscow of creating a "humanitarian catastrophe".

He said Russia was preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in central and southeastern Ukraine.

But he warned the Kremlin strategy will fail and Moscow will lose in the long run if it does not end the war, as he appealed for President Vladimir Putin to meet him.

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2022-03-19 17:15:00Z
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