Citizens in temporarily occupied Mariupol are reportedly lining up to leave the city.
“Today, 7 AM. Residents of Mariupol line up in a crazy queue to get a pass to leave the city. A visual demonstration of the realities of whether the citizens want to leave Mariupol. The queue crosses out all the occupiers’ fantasies about ‘people returning’,” Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol, stated on Telegram.
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Andryushchenko also published a video from the scene showing Mariupol citizens standing in a long line to get passes.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine caused a major humanitarian disaster in Mariupol. The city has been almost completely destroyed as a result of the invasion, including missile and shelling attacks.
Today, Mariupol barely stands without a regular supply of electricity, water and gas. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, around 22,000 civilians are believed to have died in the city, although it will be some time before actual figures can be ascertained. In addition, more than 50,000 were deported to Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk region.
Currently, more than 100,000 residents remain in the blocked city, where they are now suffering the effects of an ecological disaster and an outbreak of infectious disease, including cholera.
“We are seeing a humanitarian catastrophe. A lot of bodies are still under the rubble… [and] buried in yards. That is why there is a cholera outbreak,” Yaroslav Kildishov, head of the charity “I am Mariupol” previously told the Kyiv Post.
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“People are cooking using a basic fire. There is no gas. Local specialists connected water to the gas pipe. It’s like a medieval civilization,” he added.
The Russian invaders appointed the collaborator Kostyantyn Ivashchenko as the new quasi “mayor” of Mariupol and created a picture of “restoration of the life of the city.”
Residents of the city have been resisting the Russian invaders by distributing stickers and postcards with Ukrainian symbols throughout the city.
The charity “I am Mariupol” is intended to provide refugees from Mariupol with humanitarian, legal, and psychological aid. The organization’s team has a lawyer, intern, and psychologist. In addition, refugees can obtain humanitarian aid and food every two weeks.
The organization has four centers in Ukraine helping refugees from Mariupol – Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Vinnytsya, and Kyiv – with plans to open new volunteer centers in Kropyvnytsky, Khmelnytsky, Lviv, Odesa, and Ivano-Frankivsk.
“We don’t have doubts about our fighters, so we hope that we will soon come back to Mariupol when it is liberated from occupiers, and we can rebuild a new city – a contemporary, stylish, new, and liberated Mariupol,” Yaroslav Kildishov added.
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