Mariupol unable to evacuate civilians amid constant Russian shelling, official says

By AP 10 March 2022, 8:43 pm

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A man walks with a bicycle in a street damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

KYIV, Ukraine — Constant shelling has thwarted attempts to evacuate civilians from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a senior Ukrainian official says.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 1,300 civilians have been killed in Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea during the nine days of siege. The city has been left without power, food, and water.

Vereshchuk says in televised remarks that the Russian forces start shelling the city each time a humanitarian convoy makes an attempt to depart for Mariupol to evacuate its residents.

“They want to destroy the people of Mariupol, they want to make them starve,” she says. “It’s a war crime.”