Evacuation buses dare not make a move as Russian ceasefire proves an illusion
In the scramble for places aboard the evacuation trains, it proves impossible for fathers to make even painful, hurried goodbyes
The drivers waited for the order all day, their yellow school buses lined up on Zaporizhzhya’s Dnieper embankment facing south, towards the war.
They were meant to be the rescue mission: gathered together at short notice to evacuate hundreds of civilians from Russia’s siege of the port city of Mariupol.
But as darkness fell, they had moved nowhere. A promised ceasefire had failed. The buses remained stationary. And the civilians remained trapped inside what has become one of the most violent battles of the 10-day old Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Videos and witness testimony from Mariupol, which was surrounded on Tuesday, paint a picture of unrelenting brutality. Mangled corpses lie uncollected on the ground. Buildings have been pulverised by salvoes of missiles, rockets and artillery fire. There is no water or electricity. Residents boil snow to make drinking water and cower in basements.
But yesterday, a glimmer of hope emerged. Russian forces announced that they would grant a temporary ceasefire to the city, as well as to the besieged town of Volnovakha, to allow the evacuation of civilians: principally, women, children and the elderly.
It was presented as a gesture of humanity, but within hours, those hopes were dashed. Ukrainian authorities reported that the Russians had breached the ceasefire and were continuing to rain down shells and missiles on Mariupol and Volnovakha. The evacuation was suspended.
Vadim Boichenko, the mayor, said in a statement that the Russian ministry of defence promised early yesterday morning to stop firing on the roads leading to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhya, 140 miles north-west.
“Unfortunately, at the moment we were ready, the Russian army began bombardment of the very roads we were meant to take. In other words, there is no ceasefire,” he said in a video address cancelling the evacuation. He promised that he would continue talks and would announce a new evacuation as soon as a ceasefire was secured.
Evacuees were already gathering at three designated evacuation points in the city when the move was cancelled. They were urged to return to the shelters as local officials said the assault on Mariupol continued.
“The Russians are continuing to bomb us and use artillery. It’s crazy,” said Serhiy Orlov, Mr Boichenko’s
deputy. “There is no ceasefire in Mariupol and there is no ceasefire all along the route. Our civilians are ready to escape but they cannot escape under shelling.”
The Ministry of Defence yesterday said Russia’s offer to let civilians leave was probably “a deflection” to reduce international condemnation and gather its forces for a new offensive.
Those civilians able to escape described the horror of enduring the cold, darkness and primal fear amid the rubble and twisted metal.
Fleeing the city was a “suicide mission,” Diana Berg, who escaped Mariupol on Thursday, told the BBC.
It was a “miracle” that she and her husband had survived, she said. They had to drive at speed between Russian armoured vehicles, thinking that at any moment they would be fired on.
“We just squeezed between two of them very fast. They pointed their [weapons] at us, but they didn’t fire.”
Schools and hospitals have been shelled, there is no heat or running water, and petrol stations have run out of fuel. “Mariupol was a resistance symbol – it was a sign of how Ukraine is not giving up,” said Ms Berg.
She believes Russian objectives go far beyond seizing the city, which is home to about 450,000 people. “They don’t want to occupy it. They don’t want it to surrender. They just want it dead.”
Even if they had made it to Zaporizhzhya, it would not have meant safety. The Russian army is just 30 miles away, and is widely expected to try to seize the city’s strategic bridges and helicopter factory in the next stage of its advance.
In scenes reminiscent of the Second World War, hundreds queued on the freezing platform at the city’s main train station on Saturday to wait for evacuation trains headed west.
The long evacuation trains are free and require no ticket – all you have to do is get yourself to the station and hope there is a space. But there is no telling when one will arrive, and when they do they are often already crowded with refugees from elsewhere.
“What is there to say? It’s an absolute nightmare,” said a 69-year-old woman travelling with her 15-year-old grandson and a Yorkshire terrier.
When the three o’clock train rolled in an hour late, crowds rushed from door to door looking for a carriage with some space.
Women and children screamed as they were separated in the crush.
A visibly distressed soldier carrying a Kalashnikov grabbed a mother holding a baby and forced a corridor through the crowd for her. “This way, this way, children first!” he shouted at another young family. They hurried behind him.
“Enough!” screamed a female train guard as she tried to push back a woman clinging to the steps. “I said enough! There is no more room.” She slammed the door shut, and several children burst into tears. Ten minutes later, she relented and reopened the door. She let five more people on before again having to physically push someone back down the steps.
“There’s not space! What’s with the suitcase? This is for refugees, not tourists,” she shouted as a man tried to push a large bag on after his family.
The rule is women and children first, and able-bodied men are banned from leaving the country in any case.
But amid the chaos it was impossible for fathers to make even painful, hurried goodbyes.
Zaporizhzhya, an ancient Cossack capital on the Dnieper, has so far been spared the worst of the war. But everyone has seen footage from Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv circulating on the Telegram messaging app.
Video footage posted by inhabitants of Mariupol shows the facades of apartment blocks ripped apart by shells, a shopping mall burnt down and a market incinerated.
“The shelling is constant and random,” said one woman. “People come out on to the streets to make fires and warm up. When you are on the streets, at any moment a rocket can land next to you.”
The grim testimony came as the Russian defence ministry said that a broad offensive would continue in Ukraine, where it denies targeting civilians or invading, calling its actions a “special military operation”.
Russian forces were carrying out strikes on military infrastructure and forces from separatist-held Donetsk were tightening the encirclement of Mariupol, said Igor Konashenkov, a defence ministry spokesman.
Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster across the country. The number of refugees could rise to 1.5 million by the end of today from 1.3 million, said the head of the United Nations refugee agency.
Ukraine says Russian forces have focused efforts on encircling Kyiv and Kharkiv, the second-biggest city, while aiming to establish a land bridge to Crimea. The capital, in the path of a Russian armoured column that has been stalled for days, was again under attack, with explosions audible from the city centre.
Mariupol is a key strategic target for Russian forces. It lies between territory held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
To open a land corridor from mainland Russia to Crimea, it must be captured. The city has been under attack since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb 24. It is the last major population centre still held by Ukrainian forces on the Sea of Azov. But despite being surrounded the Ukrainians have refused to surrender.
The defenders trapped inside include a number of British volunteers serving in the Ukrainian marines.
“Last night, the shelling was harder and closer,” said a member of Médecins sans Frontières. “We collected snow and rainwater yesterday to have some utility water.
“Multiple grocery stores were destroyed by missiles and the remaining things were taken by people in desperate need. Still no power, water, heating or mobile connection. Pharmacies are out of medicine.”
One 16-year-old boy was killed when a Russian shell exploded on the field where he was playing football.
The damage to Volnovakha, an ethnic-Greek town between Mariupol and Donetsk, is, if anything, even worse. Inhabitants said that around 90 per cent of buildings had been damaged or destroyed by Russian mortars, artillery fire and missile
strikes. Dmytro Lubinets, a local MP, said bodies lay strewn in the town.
Denys Tsutsayev, a volunteer who was trying to co-ordinate the evacuation from Volnovakha, said: “There are problems with water, power. There are so many people without any heating. There is a very bad connection in the area so it’s difficult to reach people.”
Marina Gasanova, who lives in a village near Volnovakha, said her husband was driving back and forth trying to evacuate people. “The situation in the city is very scary, there is almost nothing left. My husband said, ‘I drive in, there is a car standing there, when I come back again, the car is on fire.’ There are corpses lying around, torn-off arms, torn-off legs.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it understood that the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha would not resume yesterday.
“We remain in dialogue with the parties about the safe passage of civilians from different cities affected by the conflict,” the ICRC said in a statement. “The scenes in Mariupol and in other cities today are heartbreaking. Any initiative from the parties that gives civilians a respite from the violence and allows them to voluntarily leave for safer areas is welcome.”
Those are exactly the scenes that the people of Zaporizhzhya fear will soon be visited on their own city.
As the train pulled out of the station there late on Saturday, the unlucky ones stood crestfallen on the platform. It had started to snow.
“Wait for the next one? That’s the second f------ train we’ve missed,” shouted one mother, losing her temper in front of her children.
A man shushed her. A woman in her forties with teenage daughters fought back tears.
Kirill Medvedev ignored the screaming and sat on a suitcase, rocking his distraught four-year old son Roma on his knee.
“He’s all right. Just scared by the crowd,” he said when the boy had quietened down.
“I just don’t want the children to see this,” he added, meaning the war gripping Mariupol to the south. “I honestly don’t know what is going to happen here. But they say their tanks and APCs are already outside the city.”