80% of Mariupol's houses have been destroyed and 30,000 people have escaped

Odessa (Ukraine), March 17 The destruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, besieged by Russia for 16 days, is “colossal” and it is estimated that 80% of the houses have been destroyed, while 30,000 people have been able to leave the city in the past two days on their own means of transport, the city council did report on Thursday. “According to preliminary estimates, about 80% of the city's housing stock has been destroyed, of which almost 30% cannot be restored. The situation in Mariupol is “critical,” the council wrote on its Telegram channel. He recalled that the city had been under blockade for 16 days and that more than 350,000 Mariupol residents were still hiding in warehouses and basements “in the face of the continuous bombardment of the Russian occupation forces,” who dropped an average of “50 to 100 aerial bombs per day.” Over the past two days, Mariupol residents began evacuating the city by private transport, in the direction of Berdyansk and Zaporiyia, after the opening of a corridor. “In total, about 6,500 cars left the besieged city of Mariupol... In total, around 30,000 people came out by their own means of transport,” he said. On the other hand, the city council notes that there is still no information about possible victims of the Russian bombing of a theater in the city, where more than a thousand women and children were refugees and it was reduced to rubble, but where the building's bomb shelter withstood the attack. The city has virtually no water, medicine or basic food and lacks gas and electricity because of the shelling. CHIEF imm-vh/psh