Ukraine: a year ago, the Russians took the strategic city of Mariupol

A view of the city of Mariupol, June 2, 2022. AFP - STRINGER

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Already one year since the blockade of the Ukrainian city Mariupol ended. On May 20, 2022, after taking the key ports of Berdiansk and Kherson, Russian forces attacked this port city, a strategic crossroads on the shores of the Azov Sea. The 440,000 inhabitants will be trapped there, surrounded for many weeks. Back to the siege of Mariupol that the European Union qualifies as a major "war crime". More than 20,000 people are believed to have died, but no exact toll is known to date.

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The martyrdom of Mariupol begins on March 2, 2022. The bombs are constantly falling, the inhabitants are hiding in their cellars. In a few days, everything is missing: there is no more water, electricity or heating, in freezing temperatures.

On March 9, a Russian strike hit a maternity hospital and the image of a pregnant woman on a stretcher shocked the world. It will not survive.

Seven days later, Russian aircraft bombed a theatre where hundreds of residents had taken refuge. It is "impossible to bring in food and medicine," denounces President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainian emergency service employees and volunteers transport an injured pregnant woman from a shelled maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. AP - Evgeniy Maloletka

Last soldiers hailed as 'heroes' by Kiev

The noose is tightening day by day, and tens of thousands of residents are leaving Mariupol in perilous evacuation operations. On April 4, the mayor declared that the city was 90% destroyed.

In the end, fierce fighting takes place in the vast steel plant of the Azovstal group; Russian President Vladimir Putin gives the order to besiege the factory "so that not a single fly passes".

On May 20, Moscow declared Azovstal to be under Russian control. The last soldiers surrendered, hailed as "heroes" by Kiev.

Testimony of a survivor

Mykyta Biriukov is a survivor. Together with his wife, mother and in-laws, the 29-year-old Ukrainian was able to flee his city of Mariupol on March 24, 2022, after living for a month in the basement of the family home, to the sound of Russian bombs constantly falling on this port city. His grandfather died there. The former employee of the municipality of Mariupol who now lives in the Netherlands, is still haunted by memories of the war and the siege of his city that lasted almost three months, until May 20, 2022.

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The images of my destroyed city still follow me today, he tells Heike Schmidt of RFI's international service. It's horrible. When I hear the sound of an airplane, even a civilian one, I feel fear. We lived without heating, water, electricity or gas. We fed on the few food reserves we had at home, such as spaghetti and canned food. From March 7, rockets fell in the yard of our house, and I could not leave our cellar. But first, I helped provide aid, food, water and clothing to people who had taken refuge in our city. Then on March 24, we gathered the whole family in two cars to try to leave Mariupol. The road was clogged with fallen trees, rubble from destroyed houses and pieces of mines. I drove with my windshield broken. It was a miracle that we were able to get out of there. Today, I live with the dream that my city, one day, will be reborn.

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