Ukraine: Mariupol official claims severe food crisis; alleges labour in exchange for food

The besieged port city of Mariupol has been facing a critical food shortage that has led the Russian occupiers to force the civilian population into labour in exchange for food, Petro Andryushchenko, advisor to the mayor of Mariupol has said in a Telegram post. Russian troops forced men to take part in the removal of rubble, and digging of mass graves making an offer for food, later, Andryushchenko informed. Mariupol mayor's office in a statement highlighted the devastating humanitarian situation in the heavily bombed and shelled city where the stranded civilians have been starving without food and water or basic amenities such as heat and electricity in bunkers and basements, hiding from the Russian forces. 

Food 'catastrophically lacking' in port city of Mariupol 

On Tuesday, the advisor to the mayor of Mariupol warned that the food is catastrophically lacking in the port city and that Russian soldiers have been allegedly indulging in the "shameful practice" of providing food for men only if they were involved in the work. "Therefore, men are forced to take part in the analysis of the debris, the arrangement of mass graves literally so as not to die of starvation. No excesses," he wrote in a Telegram post. He insisted that there was no medical care available to the civilians. "Occupiers [Russian forces] announced the opening of the first "hospital" in the premises of the dental center "Apollonia" in the Left Bank. What probably says the most about the real training of the occupiers, their care for civilians and the real state of other hospitals in the city,"  Andryushchenko further iterated. 

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during his visit to Kyiv had noted the so-called "plight and suffering" of the Mariupol people trapped for more than a month. "The conditions there, the situation there, as a result of this Russian aggression, are truly horrific,'' Blinken had said. "What gives pause is the fact there have been agreements on humanitarian corridors established before that have fallen apart very, very quickly, if not immediately, principally because the security has been violated by Russian forces," he told reporters.

Blinken had stressed that the world had witnessed harrowing accounts of "death and destruction and atrocities'' after the Russian forces retreated from Bucha, but "we can only anticipate that when this tide also recedes from Mariupol, we're going to see far worse if that's possible to imagine," he said.