Mariupol: No Food, No Water, No Heat, No Hope

"This is not a martyr city. It is a fighter city. And we are not in the past, we are in the present, you understand?"

"While we are here, Mariupol continues to be Ukrainian."

"Have you thought about how it is to be here, to fight in such conditions? It's when they text you, 'How are you, buddy?' when five minutes ago you put down a black bag with a brother you knew for seven  years."

Systoslav Palamar, captain, Azov regiment, Ukraine

 

"Russian occupation forces used a poisonous substance of unknown origin against Ukrainian military and civilians in the city of Mariupol, which was dropped from an enemy drone."

"The victims have respiratory failure...the effects of the unknown substance are being clarified."

Azov Regiment

 

"Mariupol is the heart of this war today. It is beating. We're fighting. We're strong. And if it stops beating, we will be in a weaker position. They are people who are distracting a big part of the enemy forces. The stronger our position in Mariupol, the stronger our position in the east of the country will be."

"And if they are stronger, the negotiation table will be closer and we will have advantages in the dialogue."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"If and when it does fall, then those forces engaged there are free to attack north to attempt to join up with those forces that are attacking south from Izyum."

"The Ukrainians are now going to face effectively a pincer move."

"The fall of Mariupol has been long predicted by many and the forces there continue to fight extremely bravely."

Western Official

A Russian soldier patrols at a theatre in Mariupol on April 12, the day of a media trip organized by Russia's military. Ukrainian authorities are investigating unverified claims that the Russians used chemical weapons in this besieged Black Sea port.  Getty Images

Mariupol is the eastern Ukraine city that has held out under all the firepower that Moscow could muster to ensure a quick and early victory in occupying the city of 400,000 people, most of whom have fled in the month of unrelenting Russian bombardments. Bombs and artillery targeting civil infrastructure, apartment buildings, hospitals, schools; no civilian structure is immune from destruction, from maternity hospitals to children's hospitals. 

Although the claim of chemical weapons being used by Russia have not yet been verified, it follows an event where Eduard Basurin, speaking for the Russian-backed 'Donetsk People's Republic' informed Russian state television that the Kremlin may instruct Russian forces in Ukraine to resort to chemical weapons to make quicker work of overcoming Ukrainian resistance to Russia's occupation and control of Mariupol. 

 

Just as the global community and military experts from around the world are nonplussed over Russia's inability to make headway in its plan to swiftly obliterate Ukrainian resistance to the invasion, so too has Mariupol left an incredulous audience worldwide that it has succeeded in fending off the Russian plan,to the present. In the city, tens of thousands of residents have been killed by the invading troops, even while Russia has itself lost an astonishing number of its servicemen and generals overall.

 

Russian troops started their encirclement of Mariupol in early March, gradually tightening the noose   AFP via Getty Images

Mariupol was targeted at the beginning of March when Russian forces from Crimea and Donbas connected to encircle the city. Since that time the Russian forces have experienced a lag in supplies and equipment. Mariupol however, soon found itself deprived of essential utilities when water and electricity was cut off by Russian troops along with communication infrastructure. Since then, as intended, the city residents and its defenders trapped in the city have faced arduous living conditions.

 

Infrequent updates from residents of the city to the world press describe the harrowing conditions Mariupol's residents are forced to live under. Tens of thousands of the residents have managed one way or another, through perilous escape corridors, risking deliberate bombing and artillery attacks, to escape the besieged city. An estimated 100,000 residents remain trapped in the city facing constant shelling, and a lack of food, water and medicines.

 

Block by block, the city has been reduced through unrelenting bombing, to a faint outline of what it so recently was; a modern city. Everywhere can be seen the bombed-out exteriors of ruined buildings, their interiors gutted, rubble piled high. And under that rubble, the crushed remains of what were once thriving human beings. The Azov's Palamar spoke by video from the bunker he was sheltered in, of steep casualties where subalterns were forced to take command of battalions, and a constant dearth of potable water.

 

Vicious street-to-street, house-to-house battles see a few thousand Ukrainian marines, border guards and Azov regiments fighting Russian infantry. The Ukrainian defences are fighting for their country, their ideals, their survival. The Russian forces are fighting to achieve the goals they were commanded to bring as a victory to their president. It is believed that the Ukrainian forces are confined to a few isolated pockets they are defending. The largest on the Azovstal Iron and Steel works.

 

Ukraine's 36th Marines posted a communique that it was close to running out of ammunition, anticipating the "final battle".  "From now on, it is hand-to-hand combat, then death for some of us and captivity for others", the communique noted. The response on social media by Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of Mariupol, was that the marines' Facebook page had been hacked to produce a false post.

It is believed Ukraine's forces have been forced back to the port area and the Azovstal iron and steel plant   Anadolu News Agency, via Getty