Stay updates: Russia invades Ukraine

Folks sheltering in Mariupol from a few of the most intense combating anyplace in Ukraine are risking their lives every time they step foot outdoors their underground bunkers, a Ukrainian military commander stationed within the metropolis has instructed CNN. 

With Russia’s assault in its fourth week, Main Denis Prokopenko of the Nationwide Guard Azov Regiment stated the besieged metropolis was now beneath virtually fixed bombardment. 

The Azov Battalion is an ultra-nationalist militia that has since been built-in into the Ukrainian armed forces.

Individuals are reluctant to depart their underground shelters even to pay money for necessities, which means they have been attempting to drink much less water and eat much less meals. One of many few instances folks did depart the shelter was to organize scorching meals, he stated.  

“Individuals are cooking meals within the streets, risking their lives beneath the continual shelling and bombing. The temperature is minus 5 diploma Celsius on the street,” Prokopenko instructed CNN. 

Fundamental providers like gasoline, electrical energy and water are all out. 

Our bodies are left mendacity on the street as a result of there’s both nobody left to gather them or it is just too harmful to strive. 

Prokopenko stated nobody knew the precise variety of folks killed.  

Details about an enormous assault three days in the past on a theater in Mariupol getting used as a shelter has been gradual to emerge.  

Prokopenko stated he believed the constructing, which additionally acted as town’s foremost humanitarian meeting station, was offering momentary house to about 800 folks when it was hit. 

Former Donetsk regional head Sergiy Taruta stated on Thursday that 1,300 people have been within the constructing when it was bombed.

Prokopenko confirmed earlier experiences that continued Russian artillery hearth made makes an attempt to get survivors out of the constructing very troublesome. 

Figures launched by a number of Ukrainian leaders, together with President Volodymyr Zelensky, say 130 folks have been rescued, amongst them one individual with critical accidents.