Starving Ukrainians attacking each other, looting pharmacies in Mariupol: Red Cross
Hungry, desperate Ukrainians are now attacking each other for food and looting pharmacies in Mariupol, a Red Cross official warned on Thursday, March 10. Sasha Volkov, deputy head of the Red Cross delegation in Mariupol and one of the the people seeking shelter, opened up on the horrifying events that are unfolding.
“All the shops and pharmacies were looted four to five days ago,” Volkov said in a three-minute voice message sent to his colleagues via a satellite phone. “Some people still have food but I’m not sure for how long it will last. Many people report having no food for children. “People started to attack each other for food. People started to ruin someone’s car to take the gasoline out.” Volkov had added that “some sort of a black market with vegetables” can be observed in Mariupol, “but you can’t find meat or something like this.”
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Our colleague Sasha is in #Mariupol right now.
— ICRC (@ICRC) March 10, 2022
It's tough to hear what he describes.
It's even tougher to imagine how people are managing to survive. pic.twitter.com/LAeBknHccx
City officials have been attempting to send bottled water to the city's central areas since the war began. However, Volkov said that it was not enough to meet everyone's needs. Ever since the Russians attacked the city, gas and water supplies have been cut off. “We still have some storage of potable water,” Volkov said. “When we run out of the stock, we will boil water from the stream. So we have comparatively good compared to others.”
Volkov is now sheltering with about 60 people in his office building, along with his family, amid constant bombing. “It’s really cold. We still have some fuel for generators so we have electricity for three to four hours a day,” Volkov said. "“We have started to get sick, many of us, because of the humidity and cold that we have. We tried to achieve hygiene standards as much as possible but not always actually possible," he said, adding, "People report varying needs in medicine. Especially for diabetes and cancer patients. But there is no way to find it anymore in the city.”
Horror struck Mariupol as Russia recently bombed a maternity and children's hospital in the city of Mariupol as part of an airstrike. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a war crime and said that a number of people were trapped under the wreckage.
Zelenskyy posted a footage of the wreckage caused by the strike. "Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity," he captioned the video.
Just hours before the hospital was attacked, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that as many as 3,000 babies were surviving without food or medicines. He said that a humanitarian corridor is needed for them to be able to flee. Although Moscow had promised a ceasefire in the city so that civilians could be safely evacuated, it failed to keep its word.