Google Earth has updated its satellite imagery over the besieged city of Mariupol, laying bare the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion.
The search engine giant appears to have partially updated its satellite imagery of the city to 2022, showing scores of the city’s buildings reduced to rubble in the aftermath of Russian shelling.
Previous satellite images for Ukraine on Google Maps had mostly dated to 2021, before Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Among the clearly visible sites of destruction include the rubble of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre, which was destroyed in March last year as civilians sheltered inside.
It shows swathes of flattened homes, destroyed shopping centres and other public buildings.
Mariupol has witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the war since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia carried out a three-month siege of the city, and in May last year all Ukrainian troops who had been attempting to defend the city surrendered at Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.
The city is now occupied by Russian forces.
📷 Google has updated the maps of #Mariupol in #GoogleMaps. Now you can see the city after Russian shelling. The bombed-Drama Theater with the inscription “ДЕТИ” (Children). pic.twitter.com/U3DxyTbaCs
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) April 26, 2023
Ukraine has not mounted a major operation to liberate occupied territories since it retook the city of Kherson and part of the surrounding province last November.
Kyiv continues to press its Western allies for more long-range weapons, tanks and jets before it attempts a counter-offensive in the coming weeks or months.
Last week, the United States said it would soon start training Ukrainian troops to use its Abrams tank.
The Abrams tanks will arrive in Germany in the coming weeks for Ukrainian troops to begin training, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also pressed Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on weapons deliveries at a meeting in Kyiv last week.
“I have asked (him) to help us overcome our partners’ reticence to supply some weapons, namely long-range weapons, modern aviation, artillery and armoured vehicles,” he said.
Mr Stoltenberg on Friday said Mr Zelensky had been invited to attend the next Nato summit in July and emphasised the need to support Ukrainian battlefield logistics.
“Maybe it sounds a bit more boring, but ... this is now a battle of attrition, and a battle of attrition becomes a war of logistics," he said.
