Ukraine’s battered Mariupol, reeling from hospital strike, says Russia’s assault continues as bodies pile up

A Russian barrage has pummeled Mariupol, a key port city on the Sea of Azov, for days, thwarting efforts to shuttle residents out to safety after a siege choked off food, water and power supplies.

Evacuations from other encircled cities to different parts of Ukraine resumed Thursday, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 60,000 people were evacuated a day earlier nationwide. However, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, in a news briefing, offered a different account, saying that not a single person had been evacuated Thursday from Mariupol.

In the besieged port city, people sheltered in basements, bodies littered the streets and the one functional hospital was at capacity, an adviser to the mayor’s office said Thursday. Local authorities have sought for days to deliver aid to the city and to open a corridor for civilians out of Mariupol, but they say shelling has prevented residents from leaving.

Video recorded Thursday and verified by The Washington Post shows the aftermath of an alleged attack by Russian forces in Mariupol. The footage, filmed near the city’s center, shows a handful of residents walking around the edge of a massive crater, surrounded by a heavily damaged apartment block and nearby shops that were blown out by an explosion. At least one blast is audible in the footage before the man filming and others nearby rush for cover.

The adviser to the Mariupol mayor’s office, Petro Andryushchenko, said 1,300 people have died in the city since Russian forces surrounded it and at least 3,000 have been injured. Authorities say rescue workers have been unable to collect all the bodies and determine the toll.

The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, told The Washington Post, through an aide, that “Russian occupation forces have been firing continuously for 10 days.”

“Unfortunately, there are many civilian casualties,” he said. “Yesterday, 1,007 civilian casualties were confirmed.”

“It is almost impossible to get an accurate estimate of the victims due to the constant shelling of the city. Some of the dead remain under the rubble or in houses,” he said.

On the 10th day of the blockade, Mariupol has no water, electricity, heat, mobile communication or Internet, he added, with the occupying forces closing all entrances and exits from the city. Mobile communication points in the city were interrupted due to the shelling, while damaged power lines have left it without electricity, making it impossible to charge a cellphone or other gadgets unless using a generator.

“It is not possible to deliver food, drinking water and medicines to Mariupol. In addition, there are about 3,000 newborns and infants in Mariupol who need special nutrition and medical support,” he added. “There is a risk that in the coming days the children will have nothing to [eat].”

Verifying information on the scale of the crisis in Mariupol has been challenging as many international monitors, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, pulled out their staff in advance of Russia’s invasion.

A Mariupol city council statement to The Post said 43 people were buried in what it described as the city’s first mass grave in the conflict. It said they were buried in a location “relatively safe” from shelling because of the risks in other cemeteries and neighborhoods of the city. Footage from the Associated Press showed men wrapping bodies in shrouds or body bags and piling them up inside a trench.

As the toll in Mariupol mounted, Russia’s foreign minister and his Ukrainian counterpart failed to find common ground at a meeting in Turkey, their first high-level talks since the invasion. Meanwhile, European leaders were set to meet in Versailles, west of Paris, to discuss the next steps in their coordinated response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including efforts to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Vice President Harris said Thursday during a visit to Poland that the United States is “absolutely prepared” to help the country with the “virtually unprecedented” number of Ukrainian refugees it has received in the two weeks.

Poland has already taken in 1.5 million refugees since Russia invaded Ukraine, and many of them are staying with Polish families. Harris praised the generosity and courage of those in Poland who are sheltering strangers. Americans will “do what we can and what we must to support Poland in terms of the burden that they have taken on.” Harris also announced the United States would donate $50 million to the United Nations World Food Program.

“Through our work collectively in the U.N., through NATO, we will support Poland in terms of the burden it is facing and our collective responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of these refugees,” Harris said.

The United Nations said Wednesday that 516 civilians were confirmed killed in Ukraine and more than 900 injured since the Russian invasion, but it said the count is incomplete and is undoubtedly much higher. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted recent “allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties” in Mariupol and other cities but said those figures were not included in its tally and “are being further corroborated.”

Mariupol, key Ukrainian port, under siege and out of water: ‘We are being destroyed’

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, without evidence, that the maternity hospital shelled Wednesday was housing Ukrainian fighters and that no women or children were in the building.

Videos and photos of the aftermath show children and injured pregnant women being led away from the hospital after an attack that Ukraine’s Zelensky called an “atrocity.” “What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals and maternity hospitals and destroys them?” he said in a video address late Wednesday.

The attack drew condemnation from Western leaders including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who described it on Twitter as “depraved,” while Britain’s armed forces minister called it “a war crime.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “It is horrifying to see.” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said the hospital attack was “horrific” and called for an end to the bloodshed.

Mariupol officials say 3 dead, 17 injured after Russian airstrike hits maternity hospital

“I am horrified by the reported attack today on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine — an attack which reportedly left young children and women in labor buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings,” Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, the U.N.agency for children, said in a statement. “This attack, if confirmed, underscores the horrific toll this war is exacting on Ukraine’s children and families.”

Timsit and Francis reported from London. Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine. Rick Noack in Paris, Natalie Gryvnyak in Lviv, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in Warsaw and Amy B Wang and Dalton Bennett in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.