Russians open office of Putin’s United Russia party in besieged Mariupol
IRYNA BALACHUK - FRIDAY, MARCH 25 2022, 12:41 pm
Putin’s United Russia party has opened an office in Mariupol, a city which has been under siege for more than three weeks. Source: Mariupol City Council with reference to local residents.
Quote from the City Council: "The occupiers have opened an office of Putin’s party "United Russia" in the Metro shopping centre on the outskirts of Mariupol. Details: According to Mariupol residents who remain in the city, this office, the party’s headquarters there, is distributing party newspapers, campaigning for Russia, and issuing cards for the Phoenix mobile operator, which has been operating in the occupied Donetsk since 2014.
It is reported that the Russians are calling this headquarters "humanitarian".
- Since March 3, Mariupol has been under siege by the Russians and has been experiencing daily artillery shelling and air strikes. According to the City Council, on March 15 alone, the Russian army launched 22 air strikes on the city, dropping 100 bombs.
- Civilians are living in basements around the clock. The Russians have not allowed humanitarian aid into the city, have fired on civilians, and dropped bombs on civilian buildings where children were sheltering.
- On 14 March the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, described the general situation in the city as catastrophic; according to him, casualties of the Russian attacks may number up to 20 thousand."
- On the afternoon of 16 March, Russian aircraft dropped a bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theatre in the centre of the encircled port city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine.
- The building was housing about a thousand city residents who had lost their homes due to Russian shelling. According to officials and the military, many people with small children were sheltering in the theatre. Due to fierce fighting it was impossible to reach the ruins of the building.
- According to the latest data of Mariupol city council, about 300 people died in the Mariupol Drama Theatre as a result of the bombing by a Russian aircraft.
- On March 24, Mariupol City Council stated that Mariupol residents were being seized and deported to Russia en masse. In total about 15,000 Mariupol residents have been illegally deported, said the City Council.
