Via Donbass Insider
On March 28, 2022, we traveled to Mariupol to assess the development of the situation. On the spot we found civilians who stayed a month in their cellars, and who explained to us how the municipal authorities, and among others the mayor, fled Mariupol at the start of the Russian special military operation and abandoned the inhabitants to their fate.
From the eastern entrance to Mariupol, we discover a church destroyed by the bombings that hit this area. A checkpoint was set up there by soldiers of the People's Militia of the DPR (People's Republic of Donetsk), to check the vehicles of civilians evacuating the city, and especially to check whether the men evacuating are not Ukrainian soldiers in disguise in civilians.
For this, the men must show their torso, their back, their arms and their calves, in order to show if they have traces related to the carrying and the use of weapons (such as bruises on the shoulder), or Nazi-style tattoos.
We continue west, towards the area where fighting is still taking place to finish clearing the area of fighters from the Azov regiment. We find a building whose top floors have burned down, and where many civilians still live in the basements.
Some refuse to evacuate because they don't want to leave their homes, others because they are waiting to hear from loved ones who are closer to the city center before evacuating together.
We discover six graves at the foot of the building, the inhabitants explained to us that they had buried seven people who died during the fighting, and that they could not bring to the cemetery.
Several inhabitants tell us of their anger at having been abandoned by the municipal authorities who fled Mariupol at the start of the Russian special military operation, and left the inhabitants without a mayor, and without anyone to organize aid to the population.
Worse, while these city authorities knew there would be fighting in Mariupol, they chose not to evacuate civilians as long as it was possible and the city was not completely surrounded, and simply told people to go down to the anti-bombing shelters and wait for it to pass!
See the report filmed on site, subtitled in French:
