The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Vadim Boichenkohas accused this Sunday Russia to want delete port city and to carry out aruthless actionagainst its 450,000 residents, as he stated in an interview with the Ukrainian news agency united.
On the other hand, Ukraine and Russia have agreed for this Sunday two humanitarian corridors, one from devastated Mariupol. This measure, if carried out by Russian troops, will allow people to leave the southern city only by private car. It is estimated that some 100,000 inhabitants of the 450,000 who resided before the invasion
“This is genocide”
“They have not been tasked with protecting anyone. Their task is simply wipe the city off the face of the earthincluding its inhabitants. This is genocidethere is no other way to call what is happening”, declared Boichenko, who added that a military court “wait for Putin and the entire Russian army.”
Boichenko has assured that the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine continues to fly over Mariupol and that Russian troops have not yet taken control of the port city. “Our soldiers are doing everything possible to ensure that this continues in the future,” he added.
60% of houses bombed
However, some parts of the city are already under Russian control, the mayor explains in the interview. “The city is surrounded, the ring is narrowing. In addition, the 90% of the housing stock has been damaged one way or another. Is about 2,600 houses, of which 60% have a direct hit by bombing. Another 40% is no longer recoverable,” Boichenko detailed.
Hospital attack: “hard to comment”
Regarding Russia’s statements about the bombing of the hospital maternal child of the port city, that the Kremlin described as ‘fake news‘, the mayor of Mariupol has assured that “Russia has lied, lies and will continue to lie after the war”.
“It is difficult to even comment. Our hospital was located in the left part of the city, which was the first to suffer a massive bombardment by Russian troops,” he said about the attack he suffered on March 9. In the hospital there were 300 people. There were medical personnel, women in labor.
“And, the worst thing, is that there were many children. And not just newborns. This large building housed traumatology and pediatric surgery. And there are children with injuries, those that we pulled out from under the rubble,” Boichenko lamented.
“Thousands of people” deceased
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March 13 was the last time that the city council offered information about the dead numbers from the start of hostilitieswhen more than 2,000 deceased. Regarding the updated figure, Boichenko has preferred not to give specific data: “I don’t want to scare anyone. I can say with certainty that this number is much higher. There are thousands of people.”
Regarding the future of the city, besieged by Russian troops, the Mariupol councilor believes that “time will tell”, refusing to comment on the future or a possible liberation by Ukrainian troops from abroad.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.