A video posted of a rubble-strewn street shows Mariupol Police Officer Michail Vershnin telling President Joe Biden that they promised help, but “what we have not received” and urging them to save the civilian population.
“Children and elderly are dying. The city has been destroyed and it is gone from the face of the Earth,” he stated in Russian, speaking in the video that was filmed on Friday and authenticated by The Associated Press.
It is home to flames coming from several buildings, while others have been decimated in the city of Azov. This was a city that had 440,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion. You could also hear apparent explosions.
“You promised help. Please give it to us. Macron and Biden are both great leaders. He said, “Be them to the end.”
Vershnin said the city is facing the fate of the Syrian city of Aleppo that was destroyed in 2016 in a Russian-backed siege during Syria’s revolution-turned-civil war. Russia supported President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria with a brutal strategy of securing opposition-held areas and bombarding them until their ability to resist collapsed.
Mariupol was also subject to intense fighting in the past against Russia-backed separatists following Russia’s 2014 annexe of Crimea. However, it managed to withstand repeated attacks.