“Mariupol. Almost half a million inhabitants lived here. Now there are almost no intact houses left. The terrorist state did everything they could to kill the city. Over 90 percent of Mariupol is destroyed,” Zelenskyy wrote on the video he posted on his Facebook profile.
The capture of Mariupol allowed Russia to connect the annexed Crimea by land with the separatist territories and secure complete control over the coast of the Sea of Azov. The defense of Mariupol resisted Russian forces for a long time, and in mid-May Mariupol fell.
The city faced heavy shelling from the beginning, its infrastructure was destroyed. People found themselves without water, heat, food, electricity, functional sewerage and a telephone connection. Heavy shelling left thousands of civilians dead. In the city, 90 percent of the infrastructure was damaged. Over 1,300 buildings, 11,000 houses, 25 kindergartens, 11 hospitals, 53 cultural and sports institutions and 39 schools were destroyed.
