Intense Russian airstrikes turned the besieged city of Mariupol into "dead ashes". This was revealed by the city council on Tuesday (22/3/2022).
Reuters, citing a Ukrainian official, said street fighting and bombings raged in Mariupol, a day after rejecting an ultimatum from Russia to surrender.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are believed to be trapped inside buildings, without access to food, water, electricity or heating.
According to Russia's RIA news agency, citing a separatist leader, Russian troops and Russian-backed separatist units have controlled about half of the port city, which normally hosts about 400,000 people.
Meanwhile, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, street fighting broke out in the city, in which both Ukrainian civilians and soldiers were attacked by Russia.
"There is nothing left there," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address to Italy's parliament.
Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told CNN that the city was under a complete blockade and was not receiving any humanitarian aid.
"The city is being bombed continuously, from 50 bombs to 100 bombs dropped by Russian planes every day... Lots of deaths, lots of crying, lots of horrific war crimes," Orlov said.
Mariupol has been the focus of a war that erupted on February 24 when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in what he called a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine and replace the current pro-Western leadership.
The city lies on the Sea of Azov and control of the city would allow Russia to link areas in the east controlled by pro-Russian separatists with the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Putin's 27-day offensive into Ukraine has forced more than 3.5 million people to flee. This condition caused the Russian economy to be isolated. This raises fears of a wider conflict in the West that was unthinkable for decades.
Western countries plan to put more pressure on the Kremlin economy.
According to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden will join his allies in implementing additional sanctions and tightening existing ones during his trip to Europe this week.
The trip will also include an announcement of joint action to improve energy security in Europe, which relies heavily on Russian gas. In addition, Biden will show solidarity with Ukraine's neighbor Poland with a visit to Warsaw.
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