INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Fleeing Ukrainian families describe the "hell" they left behind in the besieged city of Mariupol, of seeing corpses in the streets and of
drinking water and cook food scraps on open fires with food, water and power supplies cut off."They fire so many rockets," Tamara Kavunenko,
58, told AFP, one of more than 4,300 Mariupol residents who escaped to Ukraine's central city of Zaporizhzhia this week."In the streets
When it didn't, we boiled water from the river to drink," Kavunenko added."It's not Mariupol anymore
It is hell."Ukraine says more than 2,000 people have died so far in the city, a key strategic target for Moscow, potentially linking Russian
forces in Crimea to the west and the Donbas to the east, while cutting off Ukrainian access to the Sea of Azov.On Thursday, Ukraine accused
Vadim Boychenko said on Telegram overnight Wednesday to Thursday.Many of them escaped by chance amid a communications blackout.In the
building of a Soviet-era circus in Zaporizhzhia, Red Cross volunteers wait for evacuees
He looted shops for food to feed his children and grandparents, he said."We lived underground and if it was minus four degrees C it was a
good temperature," he said, lifting his leg to show that he is wearing three pairs of trousers for warmth."Sometimes bodies are in the
wife and two young children on Tuesday, he told AFP, on what he said was his third attempt to leave.Daria, another civilian who fled, said
cradling her baby on her lap."We were left without light, without water, without gas, without means to exist
It was impossible to buy anything anywhere," she added.Marina, a Red Cross volunteer in Zaporizhzhia, said the fleeing residents arrived in
The shopping center offers them shelter and the possibility of a shower
"We take care of them," he said
Many said they were unable to leave shelters due to sustained attacks and, with no phone or internet connection, found safe passage by
chance."We saw that people with white ribbons (on their cars) were leaving," said a woman who gave her name only as Darya, adding that she
