Russia bombs a mosque in which there were 80 civilians in Mariupol and surrounds Kiev

A mosque housing 80 civilians, including Turks, was bombed in Mariupola port in southeastern Ukraine where thousands of people have been besieged for days, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday.

“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was bombed by the Russian invaders”, the ministry said on Twitter.

SIGHT: Russian bombardment destroys children’s hospital in Mariupol, leaving at least 3 dead and 17 wounded | PHOTOS

“More than 80 adults and children are refugees there, including Turkish citizens”he added, without specifying when the bombing occurred.

The Turkish government refused to react Saturday to reports of the mosque bombing.

• “It’s a war crime”: Russian bombing of a children’s hospital in Mariupol sparks global outrage
• Russia warns sanctions could bring down International Space Station
• Putin calls for foreign fighters to fight in Ukraine with Russian troops

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, contacted by AFP, said it had “no information”.

The Turkish consulate in Odessa, an important port in southern Ukraine, had called on March 7 on Twitter for Turkish citizens in Mariupol to take refuge in the attacked mosque, “with a view to evacuating our country”. AFP was unable to contact the consulate.

The strategic city of Mariupol, bombed for days, suffers a devastating siege.

SIGHT: “Syria was the school of war for Russia to later invade Ukraine”

The inhabitants, barricaded in basements, are cut off, without water, gas or electricity and even fight to get food. It’s an “almost hopeless” situationDoctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Friday.

Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet. with “1,582 civilians killed in 12 days,” the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Friday.

A children’s hospital and a maternity hospital were attacked on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring many others, sparking an international outcry.

SIGHT: The United States prohibits the import of Russian vodka, diamonds, caviar, fish and seafood

In this context, a new evacuation corridor attempt is planned to allow civilians to leave the city towards Zaporizhia, some 200 km to the northwest, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

For days now, the Ukrainians have claimed that the Russian army has been shelling the evacuation route.

As in previous days, humanitarian corridors around Kiev were also to be reopened, to evacuate the population of the towns to the northwest of the Ukrainian capital.

“I hope that the day goes well, that the planned routes are opened and that Russia respects its obligations regarding the respect of the ceasefire”Vereshchuk declared, in a video released by the Ukrainian presidency.

While the Russian army continues to advance and position itself around Kyivthe attacks reached this Saturday morning the city of Vasylkiv, about 40 km south of the capital.

Eight Russian rockets hit the local airport around 7 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT), which was “completely destroyed,” Mayor Natalia Balassinovich said on her Facebook account. An oil depot was also hit and caught fire, she added.

_____________________________

• Putin says Western sanctions are like a ‘declaration of war’
• Ukraine shows on social networks the missile attack on a helicopter: “This is how the Russian occupiers die!” | VIDEO
• Visa and Mastercard suspend operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine
• The strange act of Vladimir Putin between jokes, flowers and stewardesses in full offensive in Ukraine
• British journalists recorded the moment they were fired upon by Russian troops in Ukraine
• War correspondent in Ukraine: “No one imagined that this would happen with such brutality”

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn