People who were killed by Russian shelling and air strikes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol were buried in shallow graves, oftentimes unmarked, and the entire city smelt like death, a survivor of the siege told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

This newsroom spoke to Maria*, who managed to escape after enduring weeks of incessant bombardment by Russian forces, which left many of her friends and relatives dead.

We met her at a Salesian centre in Lviv, where she has been staying for the past few days.

“I thought this year was going to be the best year of my life,” said the former Russian language teacher, who preferred to remain anonymous for the safety of her relatives both in Ukraine and Russia.

“I’m turning 60 and was going on a cruise and had bought several dresses for the occasion. Now that dream has been shattered. I lost everything when my home was bombed.”

When the siege started, the city quickly lost power, water and gas supplies. The bombing went on day and night. “We had to cook outside on open fires, in the cold weather. We had to cut down trees for wood and had to fetch water to wash from the river. We got our drinking water from the cistern of a nearby church.”

Eventually, food ran out and some residents, desperate with hunger, resorted to looting and stealing.

Maria lost several friends and neighbours to the Russian air and missile strikes. One of them was caught out in the open while trying to fetch water from a nearby stream. Another was killed while walking to a school that had a generator. He was trying to recharge the family’s mobile phone.

“Many people were buried outside their homes and name tags were placed on crosses. Others who were not identified were buried in shallow pits, like animals are buried. Sometimes, the dead had to be left out in the streets for days, due to the bombing. There was a smell of death all around. There are such graves all over Mariupol. No one will ever know the exact number of people who died.”

Maria said she could not understand why the Russians were shooting at peaceful people inside their homes.

“We were told that the safest place to hide during an attack was in a lift shaft, but I know of a group of people who was killed even there, so powerful was the blast. Nowhere was really safe in the city.”

A family of five decided to stay at home, thinking that the house was strong enough to withstand any explosion. They were wrong. All five died when a Russian missile hit the building.

“One day, the attacks were so intense and the house was shaking so much that we decided it was time to leave. We tried to go to a nearby shelter but it was already full.”

Maria returned to her house, but a few hours later some Ukrainian soldiers came and said she had two options. “Either stay here and die, or escape.”

“I kept hoping that peace would come but I took the decision to escape. Had I not listened to the soldiers, I would be dead today. The following day, my house was completely destroyed by shelling.”

The escape from the city was perilous. “We could hear people crying for help, trapped inside their homes. They burned to death.”

Maria and a group of around twenty others finally managed to exit the city, but the going was tough. At one point, they met a group of Russian soldiers, who exclaimed that they had come to “liberate” them. “What do you say to people who were destroying our homes? We stayed quiet and moved on.”

Unfortunately, some elderly members of the group could not keep up and had to return to Mariupol, their fate unknown.

“I did not manage to take anything with me, but I thank God that I managed to escape with my life.”

In the following days, Maria went from town to town, joining other groups of refugees. She spent days stuck on buses in queues and checkpoints. Despite the arduous journey, she was really touched by the kindness of all those who helped her and other refugees along the way.

She is now safe at the Salesian home in Lviv and hopes to travel to Naples in Italy, where she will stay with friends.

But the experience of war has clearly traumatised her. “I cannot comprehend how such things are still happening in the 21st century,” adding that Russian president Vladimir Putin is “acting like Napoleon.”

“Mariupol was a beautiful city. There were theatres, parks, playgrounds …. now there is nothing. It is now a city of the dead.”

 

The Malta Independent's team in Ukraine is supported by GO.