Local authorities and residents in Mariupol reported that the situation is deteriorating "hour by hour" in the city, which contains the main Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov (southeast), with the Russian army shelling the city center and residential areas on Wednesday. Russian artillery targeted residential areas, including a maternity hospital and a school, resulting in 42 injuries, according to the city council.
Controlling Mariupol, which has a population of about 410,000, is strategic for Russia as it would allow them to connect their forces in the Crimean Peninsula with those in the separatist regions of Donbas. Russian forces have been stationed across Mariupol, according to Moscow, as reported on Tuesday.
According to Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, Russian shelling continued for 14 hours, and Russian troops attempted to prevent civilians from fleeing the area. Marina, 24, stated that "the situation has been deteriorating hour by hour," emphasizing that "during eight years of war (since the conflict began in Donbas in 2014), the city center has never been shelled before."
Public transportation in the city was disrupted on Wednesday, and electricity has been cut off in some neighborhoods since last Friday, with long queues forming outside the few remaining open shops, residents reported.
According to the Ukrainian army, a Tochka missile struck in the downtown area on Tuesday, killing a 16-year-old boy, as mentioned by the city council. On the seventh day of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military announced on Wednesday evening the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave the most heavily attacked Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol.
Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov stated in a briefing broadcast by Russian public television that "all civilians wishing to leave Mariupol can do so - for security reasons - by heading east towards Shirokine." Meanwhile, Greek Deputy Minister for European Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, whose country began evacuating dozens of its citizens from the city on Wednesday, remarked that "Mariupol is currently under fire from the north and south; it is a besieged city."
