The United States and its allies are preparing for the fate of Mariupol, the southern city at the center of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack on eastern Ukraine, and a place described by United Nations observers as the center of hell due to his bombardment.
Conquering the city is seen as Putin’s main goal, as complete Russian control would establish a key lifeline to resupply troops seeking to seize eastern Ukraine.
Besieged Ukrainian forces holding out at a steel plant represent the last stand of soldiers defending the city.
They have pleaded with the US and other powers for help, but the Biden administration and its allies have refused to engage US and NATO forces directly in Ukraine to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia.
As a result, while the United States has increased deliveries of heavy weapons to Ukraine, it has generally only been able to observe the horrors of Mariupol from afar.
“We are watching what is happening in Mariupol from the Balkans, it is absolutely heartbreaking to see what is happening,” Sen. Chis Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters during a call from Pristina, Kosovo.
“It’s also exciting to see the Ukrainians mount what a heroic defense and I think we’re happy to see a new round of assistance announced at a critical time, both logistically and morally, in this fight,” he added.
The almost complete destruction of the city, under a two-month Russian attack, is described as the most extreme case of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces.
“We have seen horrific images and heard credible reports of atrocities in a growing number of cities in Ukraine, including Mariupol,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill.
“These images and reports suggest that these atrocities are not the act of rogue units; rather, they are part of a deeply disturbing pattern of reports of abuse in all areas where Russian forces are involved.”
Only a few thousand civilians are believed to have been evacuated during the weeks of assault among a population estimated at between 150,000 and 300,000, with humanitarian access and communication in and out of the city nearly impossible.
“Many civilians, including women, children and the elderly, remain trapped in areas of Mariupol besieged by Russian forces,” Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“For many weeks, they have survived in dire conditions and with scant supplies. They must be immediately provided with humanitarian corridors that allow them to evacuate to a place of safety.”
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, described international humanitarian law being “cast aside” amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
He added that while the UN has documented more than 5,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine, “we know the real numbers will be much higher as the horrors inflicted in areas of heavy fighting, such as Mariupol, come to light.”
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that approximately 22,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol, in a statement published by the city council on its telegram channel.
Boychenko also accused the Russians of putting between 3,000 and 9,000 bodies in a mass grave outside the city and released satellite images from the technology company Maxar purporting to show the trenches.
“The greatest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol,” Boychenko said in a statement translated from the Ukrainian, condemning it as genocide. “This is the new Babyn Yar,” he said, referring to a memorial site outside kyiv that was the site of a Nazi massacre of more than 30,000 Ukrainian Jews.
Ukrainian city officials have also accused Russia to bring in mobile crematoria to cremate the dead, reflecting the scale of death in the city and allegations that Russian forces are burning bodies to cover up alleged war crimes.
humanitarian agencies have been blocked of the city and its convoys reportedly looted by Russian forces.
Ukrainians who managed to escape from Mariupol have said Russian forces are blocking aid and information as part of the psychological attack on civilians.
“I knew why it was being done: to leave us completely helpless and hopeless, demoralized and cut off from the outside world,” Mariupol resident Alina Beskrovna wrote in a first-person account for the United Nations.
It took almost a month for news to reach the humanitarian organization Caritas that two of its staff and five relatives had been killed in an attack near its offices. In a statement issued on April 12, the Caritas Ukraine team said that staff members and their family were attacked by tanks while taking shelter in the organization’s center.
Hospitals, apartment buildings and shelters where civilians sought refuge marked the first documented casualties in Mariupol. This includes the suspected Russian bombing of a maternity hospital on April 9 that killed three people and injured 17.
The attack on the maternity hospital and another attack on a Mariupol theater housing some 1,300 people were documented in an investigation of alleged Russian war crimes by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The OSCE said that at least 150 civilians were killed in the theater shelling and that the mission was unable to obtain information on the fate of the remaining people “because of the ongoing siege in Mariupol and the traumatization of the survivors, which made it impossible to interview many of them”.
The OSCE investigation delivered its report on April 5, days after some of the most shocking atrocities against civilians emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the suburbs outside kyiv, particularly the town of Bucha.
Martin Griffiths, the top United Nations official for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, sounded the alarm in Mariupol on April 5 during a security council meeting where members were shocked by the atrocities committed in Bucha.
“For more than five weeks, the people of Mariupol have been caught up in the fighting. It is well documented that Mariupol is a center of hell,” he said.
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Reference-news.yahoo.com