RUSSIAN TROOPS ARE laying siege to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, attempting to cut it off from electricity, water, heating and transportation, its mayor said today.

“They are trying to create a blockade here, just like in Leningrad,” Vadym Boichenko said in a statement referring to the horrific siege of Russia’s second largest city by the Nazis during World War II, which left hundreds of thousands dead.

The Russians “just wanted to destroy us all”, Mariupol’s mayor Vadym Boychenko said, accusing their forces of attacking residential buildings.

Electricity and phone connections were largely down, and homes and shops were facing food and water shortages.

Without phone connections, medics did not know where to take the wounded.

Multiple sources, including Reuters and the BBC, have reported that civilians now have no route of escape.

In a video briefing the Russian military said it is not targeting civilian areas during the invasion of the city.

“The units of the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic narrowed the encirclement of the city of Mariupol, and also took control of the settlements of Vinogradnoye, Sartaka and Vodyanoye,” Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a video briefing. 

Mariupol sits close to the city of Kherson, which officially fell to Russia yesterday. 

The capture of the Black Sea city of 290,000 people, which just last year hosted NATO-supported war games, appeared a significant boost for Moscow as it readied for potential ceasefire talks today.

Russian “occupiers” were in “all parts” of Kherson, Ukrainian regional official Gennady Lakhuta conceded late last night.

After a three-day siege that left Kherson short of food and medicine, and struggling to collect and bury its dead, the town’s mayor also announced he was in talks with “armed guests”.

He had “made no promises” to the invading forces, but agreed to a night curfew and restrictions on car traffic. 

© AFP 2022