Anarchy Prevails in Ukrainian Mariupol: What a Refugee Has Recounted

Anarchy prevails in Ukrainian Mariupol, with residents looting shops and no police presence, reported local resident Valery Fedorov who managed to escape the city on Wednesday.

“When we passed through, all the streets and shops had already been looted; there is a very serious food problem there,” the refugee told journalists, according to RIA Novosti.

Valery does not know who currently represents Mariupol's authorities. “We hid below in Vinogradnoye. We hid there. We only hear gunshots, gunshots, gunshots. And from those houses on the mountain, practically nothing remains. Where the peaceful residents are now, I don’t know,” he said.

Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin had previously stated that Ukrainian national units are poorly controlled from Kyiv, and that several hundred thousand people remain as living shields in Mariupol, complicating the evacuation situation.

Kyiv is intentionally silent about humanitarian corridors to Russia and Donetsk that could be used for escape from Mariupol and Volnovakha, reported the territorial defense headquarters of the Donetsk People's Republic.

On Wednesday, starting at 10:00 Moscow time, Russia announced a silence regime and expressed its readiness to provide humanitarian corridors from several Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed the opening of humanitarian corridors from Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhia, from Sumy to Poltava, from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, from Volnovakha to Pokrovsk, and from Izium to the Kharkiv region, along with several cities in Kyiv region leading to Kyiv.

She noted that the military agreed to ceasefire from 10:00 to 22:00 Moscow time.

It is reminded that Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin has described the aim of this operation as “the protection of people who have been subjected to violence and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.”