Haunting vision emerges from ‘freezing hellscape’ of Mariupol

Disturbing video footage has emerged from the abandoned ruins of Mariupol, a city described by locals as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies”.

Haunting vision has emerged from the destroyed southern port city of Mariupol where Russian forces have focused their attack for more than a week and locals have described a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies”.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the Ukrainian city but almost 100,000 people remain trapped by relentless Russian bombardment.

Many are without water, food or power.

Those who have managed to escape told Human Rights Watch that they left behind a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”.

Some of that is visible in a video shared by Anastasiia Lapatina from the Kyiv Independent on Twitter.

The footage from a drive through the once-thriving city shows high-rise residential towers gutted, towering electricity towers knocked to the ground and mostly empty streets.

#Mariupol today. pic.twitter.com/aUJHqqVrxm

— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) March 24, 2022

Ms Lapatina said there were many comparisons being made between Mariupol and the destroyed Syrian city of Aleppo.

‘Mariupol will soon be completely cleansed’

The vision from Mariupol comes as forces linked to Russia claim victory in the city.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Thursday that forces from his Russian region had taken control of the Mariupol city hall and hoisted the Russian flag.

Mr Kadyrov posted on Telegram a video of a phone recording in Chechen, which he said was Russian parliamentary politician Adam Delimkhanov speaking to “our valiant men”.

“The guys are radioing to say that they liberated the building of the Mariupol authorities and put up our flag over it,” the Chechen leader said on his Telegram, which has more than 1.4 million subscribers.

The former rebel-turned-Kremlin-ally wrote that Ukrainian “bandits who remained alive did not risk it and abandoned their positions … and fled”.

Ukrainians take part in an action in support of the residents and defenders of Mariupol on March 19, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. Picture: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

“Other units are moving in parallel through the city and clearing it of Azov filth,” he added, referring to Ukraine’s far-right Azov Battalion.

“God willing, soon Mariupol will be completely cleansed,” he wrote. In a video released a few hours later, Mr Kadyrov said Moscow’s forces “have completely cleared the residential areas in the eastern part of the city”.

The footage showed a group of soldiers raising a flag bearing the Chechen leader’s image over a damaged building.

“Soldiers raised a flag over the building of the Levoberejny district prosecutor’s office, the last one to be liberated,” he said.

A video released by the Azov militia group appeared to show Ukrainian tanks firing at Russian forces on the streets of the besieged port city Mariupol.

In the besieged southern port, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says nearly 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry tweeted that Moscow had “launched a new phase of terror against Mariupol” by forcibly deporting about 6000 residents to Russian camps.

Mr Kadyrov said on March 1 that Chechens had been killed in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, there are already losses among the natives of the Chechen Republic. Two died, six more were injured to varying degrees,” Mr Kadyrov said on Telegram.

Mr Kadyrov, in charge of Russia’s Chechnya Republic which he governs de facto by his own set of rules, has posted videos of Chechen fighters in Ukraine.

Images of destroyed buildings in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol are a common sight. Tens of thousands of people stuck in the city are without food, water or power. Picture: Twitter/Anastasiia Lapatina

‘We would rather die than kneel in front of Russians’

In Kyiv, the country’s capital city, mayor and former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko said Ukrainian forces were pushing the invaders back in several areas around the capital.

“We are ready to fight for each building, each street, every part of our city,” he told reporters. “We would rather die than kneel in front of the Russians or surrender to the invaders.”

Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine was holding out “with superhuman courage”.

“But we cannot win a war without offensive weapons, without medium-range missiles that can be a means of deterrence,” Mr Yermak said.

– With AFP