The mayor of the strategic Ukrainian city of Mariupol accused, on Thursday, Russian and pro-Russian forces of seeking to besiege the coastal city and prevent evacuations and supplies from this main Ukrainian port in the Sea of Azov (southeast).
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They destroyed bridges and destroyed trains to prevent us from taking out our wives, children and old men. “They are preventing us from getting supplies,” Vadim Boychenko said in Telegram messages.
“They are trying to impose a siege, as in Leningrad,” he added, referring to the Soviet city that today, again, is Saint Petersburg, the victim of a horrific Nazi siege during World War II.
Seven days ago they were deliberately destroying the city’s vital infrastructure. Again we don’t have electricity, water or (heating). He added that Vladimir Putin’s military hordes are bombing the city and do not allow the evacuation of the wounded, women or children.
The mayor of this Russian-speaking city is also outraged by the Russian justification for its invasion, that is, to “save” the Russian-speaking population from the alleged Ukrainian “genocide”.
“In fact, it is they who are committing the genocide of our population of Ukrainian, Russian and Greek descent,” he stressed.
Control of Mariupol, a city of 441,000 people, is strategic for Russia, as it will allow it to ensure territorial continuity between its forces from Crimea and those from the pro-Russian breakaway regions of Donbas.
The two groups joined forces on the coast of the Azov Sea on Tuesday, according to Moscow. On Wednesday, the separatists announced that the city was now besieged.
