Russian forces turns Mariupol into dust: Ukraine

The Ministry tweeted: "While #Mariupol besieged and bombed, people fight to survive. The humanitarian situation in the city is catastrophic. #Russian Armed Forces is turning the city into dust. "

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Russian media that Mariupol has been completely blocked by the Russian military.

According to New York Times, he gave a 90-minute-long Zoom interview to four prominent journalists from Russia, the country invading his.

While confirming that people were leaving the city through humanitarian corridors using civilian transport, he said that Russia had "organised the forcible removal of Mariupol residents to the occupied territories", The Guardian quoted the president's office statement. Zelenskyy said, "According to our data, more than 2,000 children were deported.

Which means they were abducted. Because we do not know the exact locations of all these children.

There were children with and without parents. It's a catastrophe, it's horrible. "The reality is that the city is blocked by the Russian military, all entrances and exits from Mariupol are blocked, the port is mined. The humanitarian catastrophe in the city is obvious. Because food, medicine, and water can't be delivered. The Russian troops are shelling humanitarian convoys and killing drivers."

He said that several humanitarian convoys could not reach Mariupol due to Russian shelling. He further said that an attempt for agreement with Russian was made for the removal of bodies of killed soldiers and civilians but the removal could not be made.

"To make you understand in the city there are corpses lying on the roads, on the sidewalks. Corpses are just lying around – no one cleans them – of Russian soldiers and citizens of Ukraine."

Following his interview, the Kremlin responded by waning the Russian news media "of the necessity to refrain from publishing this interview".

 Mariupol, which is Ukraine's second-largest city and is close to the Russian border, has witnessed heavy shelling by the Russian forces in past weeks.

(With UNI inputs)