I'm pretty sure the Ruzzians started fighting in the city.
It sort of looked like the only way to get them was to send snipers, and guys with javelins in to take out the tanks.
I remember a tik tok meme of some ridiculous Kadyrovite standing between broken buildings shooting 2 guns while a tank flattened cars and benches.
So rude.
How is somebody supposed to dig a trench in a public city sidewalk?
Mariupol is a big place. Almost 500 000 people before the war.
Kyiv is estimating that at least 20 000 are dead and at least twice that many were deported to Ruzzia.
Are you saying that there was a way to build a trench that wasn't 10 or 20 miles away from the fighting?
Idk. I was never a soldier.
You were.
I know the Ruzzians were also dropping white phosphorous all over Azovstal.
Good luck cleaning that up.
That steel plant is likely ruined beyond repair after that.
even if the trenches were close to the city, only the buildings on the outskirts would be affected, not the entire city. Donetsk is still in the zone of shelling by Ukrainian artillery. because the Ukrainians built good fortifications in the west of Donetsk. the Russians lost many troops trying to attack it. Mariupol was not prepared for war. they had to fight in the city. no evacuation of civilians was carried out, despite the fact that the Americans warned that Putin was preparing an invasion in February.
I watched a video of Patrick Lancaster. an American who filmed a video during the storming of Mariupol. he has a clearly pro-Russian stance and covers events from one side, but nevertheless, his videos can be useful to understand what happened there.
as the Russian advance progressed, evacuation points were created in the city, but there were too few buses for a city of 500,000 people. people under fire came there, but were forced to return back, simply because they did not have enough space on the bus.
Patrick Lancaster tried to film the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater and when he went down to the basement, the soldier accompanying him ordered him to leave. this is very suspicious. looks like the Russians have something to hide.
I started looking for information on the Internet. found that amnesty international had compiled a report:
"The exact number of victims of the attack has not yet been established, but according to Amnesty International, it is much lower than previously reported.
In the early days of the Russian invasion, Mariupol was almost completely cut off from communications, electricity, water and heating.
Immediately after the attack, the Mariupol city council said that about 300 people had died. AP journalists in their investigation noted that the number of victims could be twice as high.
Evidence collected by Amnesty International indicates that many people managed to leave the theater shortly before the attack, including on 14 and 15 March, when the "green corridors" began to operate.
Of those who remained in the theatre, most were able to stay in the safer areas of the building, in particular the front of the theater and the basement, which were protected from the direct impact of the blast.
But those people who were in the field kitchen outside the building, as well as directly on the stage and in the front rows of the audience, most likely received serious injuries and died.
Amnesty was able to collect data confirming the deaths of 12 people, but this is only a fraction of the dead - many of the bodies remain unidentified."
some Russian websites report that the Russians thought that all civilians had been evacuated and that the building was occupied by the Ukrainian army.
there are sites that claim that it was the Ukrainians who blew up something shellless inside. I would like to watch Ukrainians scoop out explosives from RPG grenades and artillery shells with spoons in order to collect enough shellless explosives ... this version is clearly for idiots. :-)
