50 People Burned Alive at Hospital in Besieged Ukrainian City, Mayor Says, Out of 5,000 Dead There

Vadym Boichenko, mayor of Mariupol.Photo: Christopher Occhicone/Bloomberg via Getty

The toll of the devastation in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol — a crucial and contested area inRussia’s ongoing invasion— is coming into sharper focus after a month of near-catastrophic assault.

Speaking at a roundtable meeting on Wednesday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that more than 5,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed during the fighting and that almost 50 people were “burned to death” at a hospital after Russian forces dropped bombs on the building.

He continued: “Russian terrorist forces dropped several heavy bombs on a children’s hospital and destroyed one of the buildings of the city hospital, No. 1. Almost 50 people were burned alive. Thedrama theater was bombed, where more than 900 people were hiding from the shelling at the time. These are just a few examples of the deliberate destruction of the civilian population of Mariupol.”

The mayor added that 90% of the town’s infrastructure had been cut, leaving residents without electricity, heat, water and other basic necessities.

As Mariupol cemetery manager Serhiy Matyukexplained toUSA Today, via a translator: “They were simply killing civilians. They were abusing and killing. How many have we collected? About 300. Many are still being buried in gardens and yards. I think it will take a while to know the exact number.”

Mariupol, which provides access to the Sea of Azov and the Crimean Peninsula from which Russia is partially mounting its attack,has become a key targetfor aggression since the beginning of the invasion in February.

As the city’s mayor referenced this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said in March that a theater there was bombed — even though the word “children” was written in Russian outside the building and hundreds of Ukrainian residents weretaking shelter.

Speaking toThe Washington Postin a story publishedlast month, those outside the city described frantically trying to determine whether their loved ones in Mariupol were safe.

Anna Tokhmakhchi, who said she has been in Prague since before the fighting began on Feb. 24, described the “shame” she felt in being unable to reach her mother, who she said she last spoke to March 2.

“My life is now filled with guilt. I feel it every time I have any meal or drink water or even when I go to bed in a warm place and I think about how my mom could be in the basement,” she told thePost. “It’s unbearable. Every day is a struggle because I am safe. We don’t have bombings here, we don’t have tanks in our streets. But just thinking about her not having all this basic stuff is killing me.”

Mariupol.Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/Shutterstock

TheAssociated Press reportedearlier that residents of Mariupol had been burying their dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of the city.

The United Nations on Friday suspended Russia from its Human Rights Council, in light of mounting reports of civilian atrocities.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian sites and claimed some of the accounts of violence were actually staged.

source: people.com