Photos from Mariupol reveal how the city of besieged Ukraine has been “completely destroyed” by Russian forces after weeks of bombardment.
According to a photographer who visited Mariupol, every building was either burned or damaged.
According to authorities, a Russian airstrike hit a theatre that was being used as shelter on 16 March , killing approximately 300 people.
In an effort to repel an aerial attack, the word “children” was displayed outside in Russian in large white letters.
Max Clarke, a photographer, said that it was almost impossible to describe how devastated the city is.
Sky News interviewed him about the “intensity of the bombardment that has taken people here by surprise.”
The devastation of is hard to exaggerate
Clarke responded to a question about the dire state of the ground. He said that it was difficult to overstate the extent of the destruction in the city. There are no buildings left unburned or unbroken.
“The people are traumatized and confused. They live without heat, electricity, food or heat. Although the temperature has risen recently, it was still below zero temperatures for most of the week.
“The fires are still burning. People have been cooking outside or inside their bomb shelters on wood fires.
“There are no shops or banks and no provisions. All that isn’t burnt down has been taken and everyone who can has fled.
“It is believed that up to 100,000 people are still unable or unwilling to leave. They just don’t even have any possessions at all. They just stay in their basements and cook and get light occasionally, but I don’t know what the future holds.”
He said, “I have never seen such devastation.”
“Freshly dug Graves All Over”
Clarke answered a question about reports of bodies and mass graves in the streets.
“There are dogs that eat chunks of bone, human bones, and bits of people. All over the place, there are newly dug graves.
“I have yet to see these mass graves, but other photographers have. I have been looking at their work, and there are bodies scattered and people being buried in the trenches along the roadside. Shelled and burned vehicles, with the charred remains their drivers.
“We saw one body that was blackened when we arrived, and the next day, it had several reddened parts and was missing its limbs. It had been eaten by the dogs overnight. It’s quite horrible.”