Ukraine Prez Zelensky: Russian war crimes in Mariupol will be remembered ‘for centuries’

Ukraine Prez Zelensky: Russian war crimes in Mariupol will be remembered ‘for centuries’

“To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said in a video address to the nation

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Sunday, March 20, 2022, 12:58 PM IST
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In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, early Sunday, March 20, 2022 | AP

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Moscow's incessant bombing of Mariupol, the port city encircled by Russian troops in the south-east, calling it "a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come."

Zelenskyy said early Sunday the siege of the port city of Mariupol would go down in history for what he said were war crimes committed by Russian troops.

“To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said in a video address to the nation.

Zelensky also ordered 11 political parties with links to Russia, the largest of which has 44 out of 450 seats in the country’s parliament, to suspend activities during the period of martial law.

“Activities by politicians aimed at discord and collaboration will not succeed,” he said in the address.

Meanwhile, the Mariupol city council said that Russian forces bombed a school where 400 people were taking shelter on Saturday.

In an update on Telegram, it says the building was destroyed and people are under the rubble. Women, children and the elderly had been in the school, the officials said. Earlier on Saturday officials said that Russian forces were taking thousands of locals from the southern Ukrainian city into Russia against their will.

These claims could not be independently verified.

Russian forces have pushed deeper into the besieged and battered city, where heavy fighting shut down a major steel plant and local authorities pleaded for more Western help.

An estimated 300,000 people are trapped, with no electricity, running water or heating.

Amid relentless Russian attacks, civilians spend most of their days in shelters and basements, as it’s too dangerous to go out, according to residents who have managed to escape. Communication with the city is difficult, with the phone network said to be operational just a few hours a day.

The fall of Mariupol, the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, would mark a major battlefield advance for the Russians, who are largely bogged down outside major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.

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