Desperate Ukrainians in Mariupol attacking each other for food: Red Cross

Starved Ukrainians have begun attacking each other for food and are looting pharmacies in the besieged city of Mariupol, that’s been subjected to repeated Russian shelling, a Red Cross official warned Thursday. 

Sasha Volkov, the deputy head of the Red Cross delegation in Mariupol said “All the shops and pharmacies were looted four to five days ago”, as per Red Cross’ official Twitter account. 

He added “Some people still have food but I’m not sure for how long it will last. Many people report having no food for children. People started to attack each other for food. People started to ruin someone’s car to take the gasoline out”. 

While the Red Cross official noted some sort of black market with vegetables had emerged in Mariupol, people couldn’t find meat or something there. 

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Speaking of the dire condition in the Azov Sea port city, Volkov said “We still have some storage of potable water. When we run out of the stock, we will boil water from the stream. So we have comparatively good compared to others”, and added, “It’s really cold. We still have some fuel for generators so we have electricity for three to four hours a day”. 

Volkov further continued “We have started to get sick, many of us, because of the humidity and cold that we have. We tried to achieve hygiene standards as much as possible but not always actually possible”, adding, “People report varying needs in medicine. Especially for diabetes and cancer patients. But there is no way to find it anymore in the city”. 

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Mariupol has long been a focus of Russian attacks. Previous talks of setting up a humanitarian corridor to allow citizens to evacuate didn’t yield much success when the process had to be halted due to Russian shelling. Most recently, an attack on a maternity hospital in the city has sparked global outrage, but Russia has now denied responsibility for the same. 

According to the New York Post, officials have begun burying bodies in mass graves to keep streets clear.