Photos of the destruction in Mariupol
Blocks of flats razed to the ground
By Frauke Niemeyer
03/13/2022, 10:25 am
Satellite images show the devastation in Mariupol, Ukraine. A shopping center is massively damaged, residential buildings are simply not where they were before. A recent attempt to get people out of the city has failed.
The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol was badly damaged in the airstrikes of the past few days. Satellite images show damage to residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Dozens of high-rise buildings were badly damaged, reports Maxar Technologies, the US provider of the satellite images. The recordings show, among other things, a residential area near the Dom Molitvy, where an entire block of houses was leveled to the ground.
Mariupol has been surrounded for twelve days, and according to the city council, more than 1,500 civilians have already been killed. The Russian forces besieging the city try to storm it. Pro-Russian separatists have advanced into the eastern outskirts but have not yet taken control of the city, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry. Several attempts by the Ukrainian side to get people out of the embattled city via agreed evacuation corridors have so far failed. The “Portcity” shopping center was also badly damaged, as satellite images show.
An evacuation attempt from Mariupol failed on Saturday. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the column of 50 buses was held at a checkpoint for five hours. Another try today. Russia, on the other hand, accused Ukrainian “nationalists” of firing at the convoy. This has not yet been verified.
Sasha Volkov, deputy chief of the International Red Cross in Mariupol, describes the catastrophic supply situation in the city and among the aid organization’s employees on Twitter.
About 65 people have taken shelter in the Red Cross building, mostly members of the team and their families. “Meanwhile, many of us are sick because of the dampness and cold in the building,” said the Red Cross man. The shelters in the basement are reserved for mothers with children, while all other people aged 12 and over sleep in the office, according to Volkov. Thanks to generators, there is electricity for three to four hours a day.
The people had brought all their food supplies from home, and food was also fetched from the destroyed houses of some employees, so that the food would last for a few days. The team would also have found a way to store drinking water. If the supplies were exhausted, then river water would be boiled. “We’re doing well here compared to the situation of many others.”
While the evacuations from Mariupol are stagnating, rescue convoys were set up on other corridors, according to both sides. According to the regional administration, more than 10,000 people were taken to safety via the “Green Corridor” in buses and private cars from the Sumy region with the towns of Sumy, Lebedyn, Konotop, Trostjanets and several villages.