Galina Vasilieva, who at 78 years old wears bright red hair, points to a completely burned nine -story building. “Look at our beautiful buildings! People are burned inside,” he lamented from Mariupol, or what is left of this port city, destroyed by Russian attacks.

“I worked in the construction sector. My generation built all these buildings. And now, they bombed everything,” explained this retiree, cheering the queue in front of a humanitarian aid distribution truck. organized by his sarcastic comments. pro -Russian separatists.

Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine, was under a torrential downpour that engulfed the infrastructure and homes of half a million people living there before the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24th.

Now, after more than 40 days, the fighting is limited to the vast industrial complex near the Sea of ​​Azov. Russian forces and their separatist allies in Donetsk slowly imposed and tightened their horrific siege.

The global balance is unknown, but it is high. The Ukrainian authorities evoked approximately 20,000 dead.

“Find out for yourself what the situation is in the city: many dead,” said Yuri Bujarev, a soldier in the armed forces of the self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist republic of Donetsk.

thousands dead

The symbol of this suffering is the theater where the basement of hundreds of people took refuge, extensively destroyed and burned after the bombing on March 16. How many victims are under the rubble? No one knows.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately bombing the area. The Russians say the Ukrainians used civilians as human shields.

“When we start removing the rubble, the number of victims will be clearer,” Bujarev said.

During most of the fighting, civilians like Galina began to leave in search of water, food, or some way of leaving Mariupol, its ruins, and its corpses.

Horror witnesses

“I know we survived the horrible and we don’t know what awaits us, we live like on top of a volcano,” summed up Tatiana, a 59-year-old municipal employee, holding broom, which is also awaiting some humanitarian aid.

“It’s the horror, the horror! What else to say? Many people are suffering. Yes, there are dead, we bury them directly in the courtyards of buildings!”, He added.

Konstantin Mavrodi, 28, and his mother Taisiya walked from their home to the hospital in hopes of finding a bus to Volnovakha, another Russian-held town in the north, where Grandma could put them.

“Now, we have to run under shots, under bullets,” the young man said. His route passed through the industrial area of ​​Azovstal, where the ukrainian army is still resisting using tunnels dug underground during the Soviet era.

Konstantin, who teaches computers to children, explained that they have all been living without electricity or internet since March 3. So it is impossible to exchange news with their relatives living in kyiv and in Russia.

He could barely see his future, unsure if he would abandon Ukraine, his homeland, and go to Russia, where his mother has a family.

“We have run under the bullets. Now we are simply people who want to live. In which country do we want to live? We will see that later,” he laments.

Svetlana Yasakova, a 43 -year -old accountant, has no plans to flee any time soon.

“I was homeless, my apartment was completely destroyed. I moved there three months ago, a new apartment, recently renovated,” he explains, smiling despite everything behind large orange glass.

Svetlana makes sure she lives in the “present moment”. “Today I’m here and tomorrow is tomorrow. I love my city, even in this state, it’s beautiful even like this,” he said.

“I am for peace, love and tranquility. And as we say, may God come to help us and handle the situation,” he said.

Source: AFP

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