KYIV, Ukraine — Hundreds were feared dead in the embattled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Thursday after more than a day of Russian bombardment left buildings in ruins and civilians cowering in terror.
Russian forces unleashed a barrage of artillery fire, rockets and air attacks Wednesday on the strategic city of some 430,000 people in southeastern Ukraine, on the Sea of Azov near the Russian border, news reports said.
“We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe at least hundreds of people are dead,” the city’s deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, told the BBC. “We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies. My father lives there. I cannot reach him. I don’t know if he is alive or dead.”
