Russia warns Mariupol residents to ‘wear white ribbons or get shot’, says mayor: Report
The Russian invasion of Ukraine took a darker turn Wednesday after the mayor of besieged Mariupol claimed invading troops had been ordered to shoot remaining civilians if they don’t wear ‘white ribbons’ on their clothes to indicate surrender.
“The occupiers no longer ‘mildly’ propose civilians wear white ribbons to mark themselves out – they have turned to direct threats to open fire on anyone seen on the street without such ribbons,” mayor Vadym Boychenko said in a Telegram post according to the <i>Daily Mail</i>.
On Thursday, Russia president Vladimir Putin claimed to have ‘successfully liberated’ Mariupol – which has been repeatedly bombed and shelled over the past weeks, leaving much of the southern port city in ruins and its population of half a million scattered.
The ‘white ribbon’ is believed to be a symbol for Russian soldiers to identify Ukrainians who’ve accepted defeat.
Shelled relentlessly, stranded civilians of Mariupol have been forced to melt snow for drinking water and cook food scraps on open fires as supplies either run out or are cut off by Russian forces who have surrounded the city. Many of those who tried to escape failed to do so because of sustained attacks. The only escape route is by private car, a woman said (to whom?).
“We saw that people with white ribbons (on their cars) were leaving,” said the woman who gave her name as Darya, as quoted by AFP.
After several unsuccessful evacuation attempts only four buses carrying civilians managed to escape from Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. Thousands more remain trapped as Moscow attacks the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated port city.
Putin hails Mariupol’s ‘liberation’
“Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,” Russian president Vladimir Putin was quoted Thursday by AFP, adding it would be ‘impractical’ to storm the huge industrial area, where more than 2,000 Ukrainian servicemen remain, according to Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
Moscow tightened the noose around the defenders holed up in a mammoth steel plant representing the last known Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol. A fighter apparently on the inside pleaded on a video for help, saying “We may have only a few days or hours left.”
Ukraine President Volodmyr Zelensky has not accepted the fall of Mariupol to Russia as of yet and said that his top advisers were reviewing the situation. The city has claimed more than 10,000 deaths so far.
Mariupol is a key strategic target for Moscow, potentially linking Russian forces in Crimea to the west and the Donbas to the east and cutting off Ukrainian access to the Sea of Azov.