Evacuate 160,000 left in Mariupol pleads mayor… ‘people are starving to death'

THE Mayor of the besieged city of Mariupol pleaded today for the complete evacuation of 160,000 civilians amid reports that some are starving to death.

- Nicholas Cecil

“People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe,” warned Vadym Boychenko. “We need to completely evacuate Mariupol.”

He stressed that around 160,000 civilians remained trapped in the largely-destroyed city in southern Ukraine, without power, running water, and with little food or medicine.

Twenty-six buses were waiting to evacuate civilians but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage, he claimed.

Russia denies targeting civilians and blames Ukraine for the repeated failure to provide safe corridors. But Russian forces have shelled and shot at fleeing residents, according to numerous reports.

More than 20,000 civilians are feared to have died in Mariupol, including around 300 in a theatre hit by a Russian attack.