Mariupol is hit by two 'super powerful bombs' as Ukrainian authorities try to rescue civilians from the city and UN calls on Russia to end 'absurd war' that's 'going nowhere fast'
Two 'super powerful bombs' hit Mariupol today as officials tried to evacuate thousands of civilians from the besieged city, which has been described as a 'hell-scape riddled with dead bodies' by humanitarian workers.
As the evacuation got underway two 'super powerful bombs' struck the port city, local officials said, without saying whether they killed anyone. 'It is clear that the occupiers are not interested in the city of Mariupol, they want to raze it to the ground, to reduce it to ashes,' they said.
It came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the 'absurd war' started when Vladimir Putin gave the order to invade almost exactly a month ago, warning that the conflict is 'going nowhere fast' and that the Ukrainian people are 'enduring a living hell.'
'Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical,' Guterres said. 'Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house.
'This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. It is time to end this absurd war,' he added.
Mariupol has now been surrounded and under siege for more than three weeks - cut off from food, water, electricity and reinforcement, and constantly shelled in an effort to force the defenders to surrender. Multiple attempts at evacuating civilians along 'humanitarian corridors' have failed, amid claims Russia attacked them.
Several thousand have managed to make it out - many by making life-or-death breaks for the outskirts in their own vehicles - and have begun to tell of the horrors they faced inside.
Victoria, who only gave her first name, told the BBC today that three infants she knows have died because they could not access drinking water, after the snow they had been melting for supplies ran out.
Others are now starving in basements that have been turned into makeshift bomb shelters but are being slowly destroyed by Russian artillery that pounds the city non-stop 'except a few hours at night', Victoria added.
Meanwhile Mykola Trofymenko, a professor and city councillor from Mariupol who has also fled last week, described how one doctor was forced to perform surgery with a kitchen knife and no anesthetic after the hospital where he was working was destroyed by artillery.
Trofymenko, who escaped with his wife and three-year-old son, said the city 'doesn't exist now because almost everything is destroyed' and that he had to train his son to run and hide from the sound of incoming bombs while he struggled to find enough food and water for him.
Speaking to BBC 5 Live in a voice trembling with emotion, Victoria said: 'My city is absolutely destroyed. Me, my family, all our friends, we don't have our homes now. All the buildings are destroyed and the shelling is continuing... It is on fire all the time, except a few hours at night.
'People stay in the basements but it doesn't save them. They're bombing so hard so they're destroying even the basements. They don't have water, we gathered snow several days ago of water.
'Three children I know... died from dehydration. It is the 21st century, and children are dying from dehydration in my city, they are starving now.
'Part of my family is still there, and families of my friends are still there. We tried to take them out of the city but the city is closed. They don't let people in so we couldn't take them out... it is impossible.'
Mr Trofymenko added: 'Mariupol was always showing to the occupiers that it is better to be in Ukraine because we are developing and we are making our lives better. We tried to build Europe in Mariupol.
'The city, it doesn't exist now because almost everything is destroyed, but previously, before February 24 [when Russia invaded] it was beautiful.'
Describing how he fled the city, he spoke of witnessing cars hit by landmines and others shot at by Russian troops despite having white inscriptions on the side saying 'children'.
'They hit one car, seven or eight cars from me. They hit this car with two children inside. I don't know what people could do this, actually. We are blaming Putin, that he is doing this to Ukraine, but regular soldiers are shooting civilians,' he said.
Perched on the Sea of Azov, Mariupol has been a key target that has been besieged for more than three weeks and has seen some of the worst suffering of the war.
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