Ukraine is on alert for a tense situation of hostilities in the port city of Mariupol as fighting is still raging.
"While Mariupol was surrounded and bombed, the people had to fight to survive. The humanitarian situation in the city was dire. The city was turned to dust," the statement of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine today 28. /3 said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also warned of a worrying situation of hostilities in Mariupol - a strategic port city in the south of Ukraine with a population of 400,000.
"All the entrances to the city of Mariupol are blocked. The port is also mined. A humanitarian disaster is happening inside the city, because people cannot access food, medicine and clean water." Mr. Zelensky said.
According to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, the city is "on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe" and residents must be evacuated immediately. Mr. Boichenko said that about 160,000 civilians are trapped in the city and live without electricity.
After weeks of being surrounded by Mariupol, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are still trapped here and facing difficult living conditions. Twenty-six buses were waiting to evacuate Mariupol civilians, but Mayor Boichenko accused Russian forces of not agreeing to let them evacuate safely.
Russia has so far insisted that it does not attack civilian targets and civilians in Ukraine. Moscow also blamed Ukraine for not agreeing to establish safe corridors for civilians to evacuate.
As the conflict enters its second month, Ukraine says that Russian forces have largely failed to achieve their original goal of controlling the biggest cities, including the capital, Kiev. Instead, Russia was forced to narrow its immediate goals to control the port city of Mariupol to the south and the strategically located city of Chernihiv to the north.
In an interview with Russian reporters on March 27, President Zelensky said that Russian forces had entered areas in Mariupol. He told the Ukrainian soldiers still standing there that they could leave the city for their own safety.
"I talked to them twice in one day. I said to them, 'If you feel that you need to leave and see it as true, in order for you to survive, then do it. I understand that," Zelensky said.
However, President Zelensky said that the Ukrainian soldiers refused to leave Mariupol because they did not want to leave behind their comrades and dead and wounded civilians.
Jack Watling, a researcher based in the UK, predicts that Ukrainian forces will not be able to control Mariupol for longer than a few days because the soldiers are exhausted. "They've run out of water and food for a while," Watling said.
The city of Mariupol has suffered the heaviest shelling since Russia launched a military operation on February 24. Mariupol has been the target of a siege by Russian troops since early March, and these forces have continued to push deep into the city, despite Ukrainian resistance.
On March 20, Russia issued an ultimatum asking the armed forces of Mariupol city to lay down their weapons and surrender to Russian forces and open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave Mariupol. In response, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said "there will be no surrender or disarming".
Given its strategic geographical location and commercial importance, the city of Mariupol is one of Russia's top targets for control in Ukraine. This is the busiest maritime trade center in the Sea of Azov region and is considered an indispensable "link" in Russia's land corridor in Ukraine.
Mariupol's location makes the city strategically important, as control of Mariupol would allow Russia to establish a land corridor from Lugansk to Donetsk and down to Crimea. Lugansk and Donetsk are two breakaway territories that have just been recognized by Russia as independent in Donbass, Eastern Ukraine.
If it were to control Mariupol, Russia could control almost the entire Sea of Azov and greatly expand Moscow's influence in the area near Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.
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