For the third day in a row, Mariupol is being shelled by Russian forces. The major city is near to a humanitarian catastrophe: there is no water, electricity, heating or connection. People here are waiting for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the injured, women and children. Russian aviation and artillery are turning Mariupol into ruins. Big stores are on fire. Apartment blocks, kindergartens, schools and municipal institutions are being hit directly. All communications are cut off, therefore there’s no water, heating, connection or electricity. There are no ways of proving water, food and medicine supply. Tomorrow it is -9 degrees Celsius according to the weather forecast.

As Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Head of Donetsk Region, informed, the difficult humanitarian situation on the South line still remains. The City Council provides water for the population with a help of tank trucks.  The first and the most important task, in case of the silence regime, is to restore electricity. Today’s morning Mariupol was waiting for the issue with the humanitarian corridor to be resolved.

This issue was agreed on during yesterday’s negotiations in Belarus after numerous addressing to the biggest international institutions, as well as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Our city is on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Yesterday we managed to make the voice of Mariupol heard and we made it to the list of the cities that would have the opportunity of a humanitarian corridor and seizing fire for that time. Our major task is to provide the citizens of Mariupol with food and the essentials. Moreover, during the silence regime it is necessary to start re-building the crucial infrastructure, like electricity and water supply”, claimed Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol.

Those who have relatives or acquaintances in Mariupol mention on social media that there is no connection with the citizens there. “You can’t even look up because of the shelling – these were the last words of the woman that is now in Mariupol. By some miracle, she managed to go online but in half a minute she had to run back to the basement. The rattling sounds over the city were heard even through the receiver”, stated Tetiana Ihnatchenko, the speaker of Donetsk Regional Council.

Source: http://polinard.org/international/mariupol-is-on-the-edge-of-a-humanitarian-catastrophe

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