The mayor of the besieged city in southeastern Ukraine says 40% of its infrastructure is beyond repair.
The mayor of the besieged Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, Vadim Boychenko, declared that the city was "90% destroyed" and "40% of its infrastructure is beyond repair".
"The sad news is that 90% of the city's infrastructure has been destroyed, and 40% of it is beyond repair," Boychenko said at a press conference on Monday, adding that "about 130,000 people" are still trapped in the city.
It is reported that, before the war, the population of Mariupol was about half a million.
Boychenko added: "The Russian army is brutally destroying Mariupol. The bombing does not stop," especially by "multiple rocket launchers." He stressed that the attacks on Mariupol came especially "from the sea", where there are "Russian ships."
"We are planning to evacuate the remaining residents, but we cannot do that today," he lamented.
For several days, the Russians and Ukrainians have been responsible for the difficulties facing the evacuations from Mariupol to Zaporizhia, more than 220 kilometers to the west.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the crossing of special vehicles evacuating civilians from Mariupol to Zaporozhye.
Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said, "15 buses have already left from Zaporozhye bound for Mariupol to evacuate our people."
She added that the evacuations are continuing despite the "aggressions by the Russian forces," which Irina accused of violating the ceasefire and attacking humanitarian convoys.
Ukraine says it has evacuated thousands of civilians in the past few days from the port city of Mariupol, which has been devastated by siege and bombardment for a month.
In a related context, Britain said that Moscow was still trying to control the southern port city of Mariupol, which witnessed weeks of intense fighting.
"The city is still subjected to intense and indiscriminate strikes, but the Ukrainian forces continue to fight hard, and maintain control in the central areas," she added.
According to Britain, "Mariopol is certainly a major target for the Russian invasion, because it will secure a land corridor from Russia to the occupied territories of Crimea," which Russia annexed in 2014.
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- Agencies