Kyiv: Two super powerful bombs rocked Mariupol in Ukraine as authorities made a fresh attempt at rescuing civilians from the besieged port city which has suffered innumerable shelling since Russia’s invasion, media reports said on Tuesday.
More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city.
“We know that there will not be enough space for everyone” on Tuesday, but “we will try to carry out the evacuation until we have gotten all the inhabitants of Mariupol out,” said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a video address.
Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked the city even as rescue efforts were ongoing, Mariupol local authorities told media.
“It is clear that the occupiers are not interested in the city of Mariupol, they want to raze it to the ground, to reduce it to ashes,” the authorities said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has turned to Pope Francis for help, urging him to mediate in the conflict so he could end “human suffering”.
Zelensky said that there was nothing left of Mariupol because of the Russian bombing. He appealed to Russia to allow 100,000 people to leave the city.
According to Ukraine, 20 buildings in Lozova and Kharkiv were damaged and one person was killed in a Russian attack on March 22. According to the UNHRC report, so far more than 10 million Ukrainian citizens have been shifted inside and outside the country as refugees.
Earlier, Zelensky said all issues would be on the table if Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to direct talks to end the war. However, he warned that his country would be “destroyed” before it surrenders.
The Kremlin on the other hand said it would like to see negotiations with Kyiv to be “more active and substantial”.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, who will be heading to Brussels this week said: “Putin’s back is against the wall. And the more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ.”
Biden has repeatedly said that he believes Putin is thinking about using chemical or biological weapons. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, however, has said that there is no evidence to suggest that.
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Agencies
