Gut-Wrenching AP Story By The ‘Only International Media’ In Mariupol Documents City’s Despair and Destruction

MARIUPOL, UKRAINE – MAY 9: The body of a man killed in clashes lies along the street near a police station which was attacked and burned on May 9, 2014 in Mariupol, Ukraine. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine rages on, the Associated Press published on Wednesday a devastating and intricately detailed article reporting on the atrocities and deprivation gripping the coastal city of Mariupol.

The article titled, “‘Why? Why? Why?’ Ukraine’s Mariupol descends into despair,” is reported by Mystyslav Chernov And Evgeniy Maloletka, who the AP notes “have been the only international media present in Mariupol, chronicling its fall into chaos and despair.”

The report’s lead image is of a trench being used as a mass grave and the story opens with the line: “The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into this narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling.”

“Death is everywhere. Local officials have tallied more than 2,500 deaths in the siege, but many bodies can’t be counted because of the endless shelling,” the AP reports explain. “Damn them all, those people who started this!” a worker is quoted while putting the body bags of Mariupol’s women and children into a mass grave.

Mariupol is a city of over 430,000 people located on the north coast of the Sea of Azov. The predominantly Russian-speaking city is the second largest in the Donetsk region of the country, which Putin declared an independent republic ahead of the invasion.

“The city is now encircled by Russian soldiers, who are slowly squeezing the life out of it, one blast at a time,” writes the AP reporters, adding that leaving the city is all but impossible:

The surrounding roads are mined and the port blocked. Food is running out, and the Russians have stopped humanitarian attempts to bring it in. Electricity is mostly gone and water is sparse, with residents melting snow to drink. Some parents have even left their newborns at the hospital, perhaps hoping to give them a chance at life in the one place with decent electricity and water.

The story explains most of the “deaths documented by the AP were of children and mothers, despite Russia’s claims that civilians haven’t been attacked. Doctors say they are treating 10 civilians for every injured Ukrainian soldier.”

The reporters, who are living through the deadly siege and lack of basic resources with the people of Mariupol, highlight several stories of local tragedies and trauma. They tell the stories of young boys losing legs as they play outside and families separated by the war, as fathers and brothers go off to fight.

“On March 4, it was yet another child in the emergency room — Kirill, the toddler struck in the head by shrapnel. His mother and stepfather bundled him in a blanket. They hoped for the best, and then endured the worst,” the reports write, adding:

Why? Why? Why?” his sobbing mother, Marina Yatsko, asked in the hospital hallway, as medical workers looked on helplessly. She tenderly unwrapped the blanket around her lifeless child to kiss him and inhale his scent one last time, her dark hair falling over him.

Read the full story from the AP here