The ordeal of this large port city in the Donetsk region continues. The bombardments are incessant, a humanitarian convoy has been blocked for several days 80 km from Berdiansk and many civilians are still unable to flee. Petro Andrushenko is an advisor to the mayor of Mariupol.
RFI: Mariupol has been under siege for more than two weeks and the Russian fire seems to be intensifying every day. Were you able to estimate the extent of the damage ?
Petro Andrushenko : The situation is really terrible. Today, we finally have concrete information: more than 80% of municipal infrastructure and civil buildings are destroyed and for more than 40%, it will be impossible to repair. But the situation will change again; we won’t find out the true extent of the destruction until we’ve been able to travel all over Mariupol, and we believe the irreparable infrastructure will actually be more than what I just told you. Our city is under attack. As I speak to you, Russian planes are bombing civilian buildings. So you can imagine the degree of destruction at the end of this war.
Are there also Russian troops on the ground?
Yes, there are also Russian ground troops in some districts of the city. In fact, it is difficult to speak of districts controlled by the Russians because they are no longer even districts, but areas in which everything is completely destroyed. There is a lot of fighting between the Russian troops and the Ukrainian army inside the city, so the battle for Mariupol is on.
What is the fate of civilians ?
More than 35,000 people have been able to leave Mariupol in the past three days in private cars. We are now trying to help them reach Zaporizhia, areas or localities controlled by the Ukrainian army, but we still do not have buses to organize larger evacuations. They are still blocked by Russian troops in Berdyansk, which is now under Russian control and Berdyansk is on one of the roads leading to Zaporizhia. This is one of the places where we could gather the population to board the buses and flee to Zaporizhia.
The Russians are holding our people back and using them as a shield against our attacks.
We avoid talking about those who are still in Mariupol. We believe Russian troops are tracking any public information about the shelters civilians are taking refuge in, such as the dramatic theater that suffered this horrific aerial bombardment, so we prefer not to comment on the situation.
As regards the people held hostage in Mariupol hospital, it is very difficult to obtain information, because of the presence of Russian troops in this area. But according to the information I have, the situation is still the same. The Russians are holding our people back and using them as a shield against our attacks, against the attacks of our military. Also according to my information, they are trying to get medical help from our doctors, from our medical teams for their soldiers. We are very worried for our loved ones, especially the wounded who were staying in this hospital. It’s a very difficult, very sad story. But you know, this is just one of the terrible stories of the city of Mariupol. This is an inhuman move on the part of the Russians.
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