Ukraine calls for urgent evacuation of people from Mariupol
International Desk, May 23 (EFE).- The unsanitary living conditions have made the evacuation in the port city of Mariupol even more urgent, a Ukrainian official said on Monday.
Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of Mariupol, that has fallen to Russia, urged the evacuation of civilians amid the increasing risk of rain-borne disease outbreaks and drinking water shortage.
“Mariupol needs a new wave of evacuations urgently. The consequences of turning Mariupol into a ghetto will be catastrophic,” Andyushchenko wrote in a Telegram message.
Andryushchenko added that Mariupol has been under “the threat of an epidemic” following recent rains that have clogged drains and sewers, leaving rainwater, together with debris and remains from the decomposing corpses, spread throughout the city.
Almost three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 150 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble at 98 sites in the northeastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region that has faced heavy Russian bombardments.
Ukrainian rescuers pulled out the bodies after clearing the sites from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Russian bombings, Ukrainian media reported.
The country’s second-largest city has been under an intense attack since the war began with the Russians attempting to access the neighboring pro-Russian Donbas region.
The Kremlin announced Monday that it had destroyed weapons in the northwestern Zhytomyr region, which were intended for the embattled region.
The weapons Ukraine planned to send to its forces in Donbas were destroyed by “high-precision missiles,” according to the Russian military statement.
On Sunday, three Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets were shot down, two in the Kherson region and one near Kharkiv, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry General Igor Konashenkov said. EFE
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