Shocking new images have revealed the extent of the carnage in the city of Mariupol which has endured two months of constant bombardment amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The southern port city, which Putin sees as a key strategic position in the eastern Donbas region on the Sea of Azov, has been under siege for more than eight weeks as Russian forces have conducted round the clock bombing raids and indiscriminate missile strikes on military, administrative and civilian targets alike.
Now with the war well into its ninth week, the once vibrant coastal metropolis with a pre-war population of around 450,000 has been largely reduced to rubble amid Putin’s wrath, and not a single row of houses appears to have survived the onslaught without sustaining at least some damage.
More than 90 percent of the city’s infrastructure has been severely damaged, while 45 per cent of it has been completely destroyed according to mayor Vadym Boychenko.
There are now just 100,000 people living among the bombed out ruins. More than three quarters of the pre-war population have fled and tens of thousands are believed to have died according to Ukrainian authorities.
Satellite images released yesterday of the city centre by Maxar Technologies reveal the true scale of the destruction.
Entire blocks have been completely decimated, while the Donetsk regional theatre, which once provided shelter to around 400 Ukrainian civilians until it was targeted in a direct strike by Russian missiles, can be seen totally caved in.
Other images showed rows of what appear to be freshly dug mass graves along a cemetery on the edge of the city, as well as the dilapidated exterior of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol’s harbour.
The factory remains the only part of the city not under total Russian control and its network of underground rooms and tunnels constitute the final stronghold of a small contingent of Ukrainian fighters, along with roughly 1,000 civilians sheltering from Putin’s bombs.
The first image taken from Google Earth shows the area around the Donetsk regional theatre in Mariupol before the war in Ukraine began. The second image, released on April 30, 2022, by Maxar Technologies, shows the same area completely destroyed following eight weeks of Russian bombardment. The theatre in the centre acted as a bomb shelter for hundreds until it was targeted in a direct strike
This handout satellite image released on April 30, 2022, by Maxar Technologies shows multiple street blocks with destroyed buildings in Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, on April 29, 2022, amid Russia’s military invasion launched on Ukraine
This April 30, 2022 image released by Maxar Technologies shows the Azovstal steel plant, the city’s last holdout where up to 1,000 civilians are sheltering with Ukrainian troops. Russia has continually bombed the plant, causing surface damage, but the Ukrainians are hiding in a deep network of underground tunnels
This image appears to show a large patch of freshly dug mass graves in the Vynohradne cemetery, near Mariupol, on April 29, 2022. Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to have been killed in Mariupol in the past eight weeks according to Ukrainian authorities
Russia continued its brutal bombardment of Mariupol yesterday, even as a small battalion of Ukrainian fighters attempted to evacuate a small group of desperate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant.
Putin’s forces now control the overwhelming majority of the city and are mostly focusing their airstrikes on the Soviet-era steel plant located close to the harbour, where a contingent of between 1,000-2000 Ukrainian soldiers are staging a desperate holdout alongside roughly 1,000 civilians.
Commanders of the soldiers hiding in the network of tunnels and rooms underneath the plant have repeatedly called for international aid and a safe passage for evacuation, saying the plant’s residents are barely surviving on extremely limited food and water and that there are many injured soldiers and civilians suffering without proper medical attention.