Infection, hunger as hundreds hide in cellar

Hundreds of people are crammed into the basement of a large public building in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, but are running out of food, with many also in need of urgent medical help.

“Some have developed sepsis from shrapnel in the body,” said Anastasiya Ponomareva, a 39-year-old teacher who fled the city at the start of the war but was still in contact with friends there. “Things are very serious.”

The city is encircled by Russian troops and remains under constant bombardment with almost 400,000 people still trapped without running water and food, and medical supplies are running out. The local authorities say the war there has left at least 2,400 civilians dead, but even they acknowledge that it was underestimate.

Ms Ponomareva’s friends are with other families in the basement of the building. They have all left homes that were no longer safe or no longer standing.

“People who managed to hide in underground shelters basically live there permanently,” Ms Ponomareva said from the western city of Drohobych, where she was living,”they practically cannot leave at all.”

Most of their day was spent hiding in the basement. From time to time they went upstairs for some sunlight, but rarely outside. Conditions, she was told, were quickly deteriorating as some people were having fever and nothing could be done to treat them. “There is no medical help, no antibiotics.”

Some streets are so dangerous that few go out to pick up the dead. Many are being buried in mass graves. The almost non-stop Russian attacks have turned their old neighbourhoods into a wasteland.

New drone footage showed the vast extent of the damage, with fire and smoke billowing out of apartment blocks and blackened streets in ruins.

“On the left bank, there’s no residential building intact, it’s all burned to the ground,” Ms Ponomareva said. “The city centre is unrecognisable.” -AFP