Mayor warns of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol

By AP 12 March 2022, 1:42 am

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

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in the port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian forces and cut off from deliveries of food and medicine.

Mariupol officials say that 1,582 people have been killed in the 12 days since the siege began.

“There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the city and the dead aren’t even being buried,” Mariupol’s mayor’s office says in a statement, calling for Russian forces to lift the siege.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes and preventing civilians from escaping the city of 430,000 people.