An advisor to the mayor of Mariupol said in an update on Art school was bombed by Russian troops in the final hours as city officials are struggling to learn more about how many people are holed up in the school that was used as a shelter.
Petro Andrushenko wrote on social networks:
“So far, there is no precise operational data on the number of people hiding in the bunker or the number of casualties. I hope we have it later today. But the situation is very difficult and there is nowhere to get the data from.”
An earlier estimate from the city council put the number of shelters in the school building at 400.
The information black hole reflects a similar lack of clarity about how many people survived an attack five days ago on a theater in Mariupol that is also being used as a shelter, which can hold up to 1,300 people.
The number of people reported to have survived – put at 130 – has not changed for several days.
Fighting continued Sunday for control of the port city in southeastern Ukraine, which has become the focus of Russia’s assault on the country.
Andrushenko wrote on his Telegram channel: “The city continues to be bombed from both the sky and the sea.
“It seems that the occupiers are so eager to wipe out Mariupol that they are willing to cover themselves with fire.”
He also said people who tried to flee the city in their cars were shot at by Russian forces.
“Evacuating is difficult – difficult but moving. The Russians are doing everything to complicate things. Last night, cars were trying to drive back to Melekine village [10 kilometers west of the city center] was fired. ”
Other residents who were trying to flee had their cars seized at a checkpoint just outside Mariupol, he said.
Despite the dangers, the Ukrainian government announced that a humanitarian corridor linking Mariupol with Zaporizhzhia, outside the territory occupied by Russia, was agreed on Sunday.
A council official reported that a column of 11 buses carrying nearly 800 people completed the second part of the journey, from Berdiansk to Zaporozhzhia, at midday on Sunday.
