UKRAINIAN authorities have said that 1,500 civilians have been killed in Mariupol as Russian forces have continued its assault on the besieged port city. In a social media post late Friday night, the Mariupol City Council said that at least “1,582 civilian residents of Mariupol have been killed by Russian occupying forces over the 12 days of the city’s blockade, and ruthless firing on residential neighbourhoods”, reports the ‘Ukrayinska Pravda’ newspaper. Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian Government said Saturday as fighting also raged on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. There was no immediate word of casualties from the shelling of the mosque.

 

Mariupol has seen some of the greatest misery from Russia’s war in Ukraine as unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring in food and water and to evacuate trapped civilians. The Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey said that a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, were among the people who had sought safety in the mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roksolana. Elsewhere, air raid sirens rang out across the capital region and artillery barrages sent residents scurrying for shelter. Fighting erupted in multiple areas around Kyiv. Russia’s slow, grinding apparent attempt to encircle the city and the bombardment of other population centers with artillery and air strikes mirror tactics that Russian forces have previously used in other campaigns, notably in Syria and Chechnya, to crush armed resistance. Artillery pounded Kyiv’s northwestern outskirts.

 

To the city’s southwest, two columns of smoke – one black and one white -- rose in the town of Vaslkyiv after a strike on an ammunition depot. The strike on the depot caused hundreds of small explosions from detonating ammunition. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that authorities will again try to evacuate stranded people from Mariupol as many earlier attempts have failed due to the Russian bombing and shelling. In a video address, the Minister said a humanitarian cargo should be delivered to Mariupol, and on the way back people will have the opportunity of being evacuated, the BBC reported