The mayor of the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol said on Wednesday that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed there and 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed by the Russian bombardment.
Speaking at a briefing, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Mariupol’s civilian death toll includes 210 children and that almost half of the city’s infrastructure has been irreparably damaged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The mayor called for stronger sanctions against Russia and for war crimes to be recorded by international institutions.
“Russian terrorist forces dropped several heavy bombs on a children’s hospital and destroyed one of the buildings of the city hospital. … Almost 50 people were burned alive,” Boichenko told the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in a video briefing on Wednesday, describing one example of a war crime he believes was committed by Russian forces in Mariupol.
Mariupol has been one of the hardest-hit cities in Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. The port city has been hit with shellings by land, air, and sea. The mayor described on Wednesday the extent of the structural damage and the human costs the city has faced.
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“Currently, 90% of our infrastructure has been destroyed, 60% was hit directly by artillery or airstrikes, and 40%, unfortunately, is beyond repair,” the mayor said.
“According to preliminary estimates alone, 5,000 people died in Mariupol during the month of the blockade, of which about 210 were children,” Boichenko said.
The attacks on Mariupol have led to a humanitarian crisis. Food, water, fuel, and medicine are hard to find in the city, and humanitarian relief convoys have been prevented from entering Mariupol on several occasions by Russian forces.
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Mariupol has been said to hold a high strategic value for Russia. It has a port on the Sea of Azov and lies along a stretch of land dividing Russia from Crimea. Capturing Mariupol would give Russian forces a land corridor between the Russian-controlled Crimean Peninsula and the Russian mainland.
British defense officials said 160,000 people remained trapped in the city.
