Russia says Ukraine has left Mariupol offline and city authorities report 1,500 dead civilians

Displaced people from Mariupol in a settlement in Donetsk – V ICTOR / XINHUA NEWS / CONTACTOPHOTO

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The city authorities denounce more than 1,500 civilians killed since the beginning of the siege

MADRID, March 11. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Russian Army has denounced this Friday that the Ukrainian forces that are defending the city of Mariúpol, in the east of the country and for days one of the great scenes of the combats provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have destroyed all the accesses of entry and exit so the city is currently disconnected from the outside world.

“All the bridges and accesses to the city have been destroyed, the main roads have been mined by the (Ukrainian) nationalists and armed men are roaming the streets opening fire indiscriminately, which is forcing the civilian population to stay in their homes,” said the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev.

Mizintsev added that the militias of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, an ally of Russia, have failed in their attempts to clear the approaches to Mariupol, “since the (Ukrainian) nationalists fire at them with intense fire from various types of weapons”, in statements collected by Interfax.

Since the beginning of the siege, Russia has repeatedly denounced the existence of members of ultra-right Ukrainian militias determined to boycott its efforts to defuse the situation.

The headquarters of the territorial defense of Donetsk had indicated this Friday that another 32 more people, including four children, have managed to leave the city, where some 400,000 people reside waiting to leave the place, among the unsuccessful attempts to establish a humanitarian corridor.

The isolation caused by the Ukrainian forces, added the military spokesman, has rendered useless any type of route out of the city, with the aggravating circumstance that the Mariupol corridor was one of the two that the Ukrainian side had accepted out of the ten that the Russian Army had offered them. The other corridor is the one in Kiev, although at the moment it has not come into operation.

On the other hand, and in a message published on its Telegram account, the Mariúpol City Council has assured that more than 1,500 residents of the city have died as a result of the twelve days of Russian attacks on the city.

“1,582 civilians of Mariupol were killed by the Russian occupation troops during the 12-day blockade of the city and the ruthless shelling of residential areas,” according to the City Council.

“We will never forget and never forgive this crime against humanity, against Ukraine, against Mariupol,” he said in the statement, published on this messaging platform, widely used by the Ukrainian authorities, collected by Ukrinform.

In an attempt to alleviate the situation, the City Council has confirmed the launch of a humanitarian aid convoy and buses to evacuate people from Zaporizhia.