Cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands in Mariupol as corpses are left uncollected and the summer causes a warmer climate, the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city said.
Key points:
- Ukraine says the war in the east is now primarily an artillery battle in which Kyiv is severely defeated by Moscow, demanding more weapons from the West.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the European Union to accept Ukraine as a candidate for membership
- The mayor of Mariupol says the city is in quarantine because it is facing outbreaks of disease
Mayor Vadym Boitchenko said the wells had been contaminated by the bodies of people killed during weeks of Russian bombing and siege, and that the gathering of bodies by Russian occupiers in the city was progressing slowly.
“There is an outbreak of dysentery and anger,” he told national television.
“Unfortunately, this is the assessment of our doctors: that the war that affected more than 20,000 residents … unfortunately, with these outbreaks of infection, will claim thousands more marijuana.”
Boichenko, based outside Mariupol, said the city had been quarantined.
Ukraine says about 100,000 people are still in Mariupol, a vibrant city that once had a population of about 430,000 before the war, but is now an urban wasteland.
Mariupol residents were forced to bury their neighbors in makeshift graves. (AP: Alexei Alexandrov)
Mariupol left without running water or running sewers
Boichenko, who said last month that the Russian bombing had turned Mariupol into a “medieval ghetto,” said residents had been forced to drink water from wells because the city had no running water or sewer system. operation.
He urged the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to work to establish a humanitarian corridor to help residents get out of the city, which Ukrainian officials say does not yet have centralized water, electricity and gas supplies.
The British Defense Ministry said on Friday that there was a risk of a major cholera outbreak in Mariupol because medical services were probably close to collapse.
Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population of Russian-occupied territories, he said.
Russia did not immediately comment on Mr. Boichenko or the British Ministry of Defense.
The mayor of Mariupol has urged the UN and the ICRC to work to establish humanitarian corridors to help residents evacuate. (Reuters: Alexander Ermochenko)
“This is an artillery war now”
Ukrainian officials have called for more help from the West, including faster deliveries of weapons to curb the best-armed Russian forces at a critical time in the battle in the east.
Heavy fighting was still reported in Sievierodonetsk, the small town in the east that has become the focus of Russia’s advance and one of the bloodiest points in a war that has heightened financial difficulties and physical all over the world.
Within Ukraine, officials say they are concerned about the spread of deadly cholera and dysentery in the southern city of Mariupol, where tens of thousands of civilians live in ruins captured by Russian troops last month after a siege. relentless.
In a speech via a video link to a conference in Copenhagen, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Ukraine to be accepted as part of the West with binding guarantees for its protection.
“The European Union can take a historic step to show that words about the people of Ukraine belonging to the European family are not just words,” he said, calling on the European Union to accept Ukraine as a candidate for membership. .
Russia has concentrated its forces on a battle for Sievierodonetsk, hoping to capture the entire territory of the eastern Luhansk region. (Reuters: Luhansk Region Police)
With the war in the east now mainly an artillery battle in which Kyiv is severely defeated by Moscow, Ukrainian officials say the tide of events could only be turned upside down if the West keeps its promises to send more and better weapons. including the rocket systems that Washington and others have. promised.
“This is an artillery war now,” Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s chief military intelligence chief, told the British Guardian newspaper.
“It simply came to our notice then [the West] Donan’s. Ukraine has one piece of artillery to 10 to 15 pieces of Russian artillery. “
Germany, among the largest arms suppliers since Russia invaded but criticized for its slow supply of heavy weapons that Kyiv says it needs, plans to revise its rules on arms exports to facilitate arms of democracies such as Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.
Read more about the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
Ukraine still to recover Sievierodonetsk
Russia has concentrated its forces on a battle for Sievierodonetsk, hoping to capture the entire territory of the eastern Luhansk province, which demands that Ukraine surrender to the separatists along with the neighboring Donetsk province, an area known as the Donbàs where he has supported a revolt of the separatist representatives. since 2014.
Ukrainian troops have largely withdrawn from the residential areas of the city, but have not ceded their point on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets River. Russian forces are also pushing from the north and south to try to encircle the Ukrainians, but so far they have made limited progress.
Both sides say they have caused massive casualties in the battle for the city.
There are fears that thousands more residents of Mariupol may die from disease outbreaks due to contaminated water supplies. (Reuters: Alexander Ermochenko)
President Vladimir Putin launched what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine in February, claiming that his goal was to disarm and “de-Nazize” Russia’s neighbor. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.
Ukraine said a speech by Putin on Thursday, which drew parallels between what he described as a new quest to reclaim Russian lands and the historic achievements of Tsar Peter the Great, showed that the goal of Moscow was the conquest.
“Putin’s confession of the confiscations of land and the comparison with Peter the Great show that there was no ‘conflict’, only the bloody takeover of the country under the pretext of popular genocide,” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, Zelenskyy’s aide.
Reuters
Posted 19 hours, 19 hours ago, Friday, June 10, 2022 at 7:46 PM, last updated 16 hours, 16 hours ago, Friday, June 10, 2022 at 11:16 PM