Fierce fighting between the invading Russian forces and the Ukrainian defenders continued over the weekend.

The focus was on the city of Mariupol in the Donbass region on the Azov Sea.

For the first time, the residents of a town surrounded by Russian troops were to be evacuated at the weekend - but both attempts failed.

On both Saturday and Sunday, Russian troops had promised the port city authorities a ceasefire limited to a few hours.

In this, buses should bring the first part of the 440,000 inhabitants to safety.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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The plan was for the residents to gather at three points in the city.

Cars should also be allowed in the column, at the head of which should be marked Red Cross vehicles.

The destination was the city of Zaporizhia, 220 kilometers away by road.

Finally, after both attempts, the city authorities announced that the shelling had not stopped - the action had to be stopped.

The situation apparently developed in the same way in the neighboring town of Wolnowacha.

A representative of the "People's Militia" of fighters in the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed People's Republics blamed the failure on the Ukrainian side for refusing to guarantee a ceasefire.

The governor of Donetsk Oblast, Pavlo Kirilenko, on the other hand, wrote on Facebook that Russian troops had continued to shell the city.

It is extremely dangerous to evacuate under these circumstances.

"No water, no electricity, no food"

The British organization Halo Trust, which operates mine clearance operations worldwide, described the situation on Twitter on Sunday in the words of an employee still working in Mariupol: “No (tele)communications, no water, no electricity, no food in the shops.

Shoot ships, artillery and planes.

The population is already on the brink.

But we persevere.

Words fail me, this is living hell.” Médecins Sans Frontières' emergency coordinator in Ukraine, Laurent Ligozat, said the situation in the big city was getting worse by the day.

Vadym Boychenko, mayor of Mariupol, said in a video interview on Saturday that the city had been "without electricity, heating or mobile communications for five days".

Baby food and medication could no longer be delivered.

A blood bank and two operating rooms were also shot at.

Up to now there have been “thousands injured in the city, unfortunately it is very difficult to count the dead”.

For days there have been non-stop air and artillery attacks.

Of the fifty buses that were filled up for the evacuation, only thirty remained after the shelling, and after the next shelling only twenty remained, and they could all be destroyed soon.

Boychenko accused the Russian troops: "They want to destroy us as a nation and liberate Ukraine from Ukrainians." The "Russian fascist comrades" aimed at "genocide".

He appealed to the international community: "Help us to save Mariupol." The city as we knew it "doesn't exist anymore".

Photos and videos have emerged from the cities of Irpin near Kyiv and Kramatorsk in the east of the country, which apparently show Russian troops shelling apartment blocks.

A column of refugees from Irpin then passed a destroyed road bridge in the direction of Kyiv in order to find refuge there.

A video recording from Sunday shows refugees being shot at along this escape route in Irpin.

In the background, people with suitcases hurry past when suddenly a projectile hits the street.

Of the family of four across the intersection, the mother and two children died instantly, according to a New York Times reporter and eyewitness.

The father was badly wounded.