Kyiv, March 13 (Agency) The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has continued to reel under Russian attack, as Russian forces shelled the city’s downtown, including an area around a mosque that was sheltering more than 80 people, including some children, Khaleej Times reported on Sunday. Russian forces continued shelling the downtown area of Mariupol forcing its residents to hide in an iconic mosque and elsewhere to protect themselves. Fighting has also raged in the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, as Russia kept up its bombardment of other cities throughout the country.
Mariupol has endured some of the worst punishment of Russian attacks in the ongoing conflict thwarting repeated attempts to bring food, water and medicine into the city of 430,000 and to evacuate its trapped civilians. More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol so far, even as the shelling interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden announced an additional aid of up to $200 million to for weapons, military services, education and training. A defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia will have to carpet-bomb Kyiv and kill all its residents to capture the city.
Zelenskyy also warned that Russia was trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country into pieces. Zelenskyy called on Ukraine’s regions, including Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in since 2014. Russia recognised the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic before attacking Ukraine in February.