Putin unleashes ‘full-scale genocide’
THE key port city of Mariupol was feared to be “near humanitarian catastrophe” last night after more than 15 hours of continuous bombardment.
Russian troops surrounded the city and launched strikes on key infrastructure targets, cutting water and power supplies – yet civilians were paying the heaviest price.
City mayorVadym Boychenko said a “full-scale genocide” was underway.
He said: “There’s been colossal destruction of residential infrastructure, there are many wounded and many civilian dead – women, children, old people.”
He was speaking as Russia claimed the southern city of Kherson had become the first major centre to come under its control since launching invasion a week ago. But Ukrainian military denies this.
Mr Boychenko said: “You have to understand that the occupation forces of the Russian Federation have done everything to stop the exit of civilians from our city of half a million people.
“Our railway link has been cut – they even went to the railway station and fired on our diesel locomotives so that people can’t be evacuated.
“So their mission is to destroy us – they have no intention of helping civilians.”
Serhiy Orlov, the city’s deputy mayor, fears that his own father is among the dead after hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in the bombardment.
Mr Orlov said: “We are near to a humanitarian catastrophe. Russian forces are several kilometres away on all sides.
“[They] are working through all their weapons here – artillery, multiple rocket launch systems, airplanes, tactical rockets. They are trying to destroy the city.”
He added that one densely populated
residential district had been “nearly totally destroyed”. He added: “We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe hundreds of people are dead.
“We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies. My father lives there, I cannot reach him, I don’t know if he is alive or dead.
“The Ukrainian army is very brave and will continue to defend the city, but the
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Russian army is like pirates.They do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts.We believe in our Ukrainian army, but we are in a terrible situation.”
Mariupol, which is on the Black Sea, is a strategic asset because seizing it would allow Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine to join forces with troops
in Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. If Mariupol falls, then thousands of Ukrainian troops dug into trenches along the old frontline in Donetsk are at risk of being surrounded next.
Chernihiv, in the north east, and Sumy, in the east, face similar fates – as does the town of Konotop with residents yesterday given the ultimatum of “surrender or be destroyed”.
Meanwhile, Major General Igor Konashenkov insisted Russia had taken Kherson in the south, saying his troops were in “complete control” of the city.
He claimed key facilities and transport were operating as usual and that there are no shortages of food or essential goods.
City mayor Igor Kolykhayev appeared to confirm the Kremlin’s control in a Facebook post which said “armed visitors” had taken
part in a meeting and that he had agreed to certain conditions, including a curfew, only cars with food and medicines are allowed to enter the city and that pedestrians would walk only in groups of one or two.
Without mentioning the Russian army, he said: “I didn’t make any promises. I just asked [them] not to shoot people.We don’t have Ukrainian armed forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to live here.The flag above us is Ukrainian.
“And in order for it to remain the same, these requirements will have to be met.”
At least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded as rocket attacks continued to rain down in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the north, where Russian paratroopers landed overnight. Missiles struck the city’s police headquarters and shattered part of Karazin University.