Eugeniy Arsentiev, his wife Yevheniia and their children Nikita and Kyrill were trapped in the city from the first day of the invasion when the Russians began shelling the city which has now been destroyed.
The military airfield targeted by the Russians was about 5km from their home. “From that moment on, the sound of shelling did not stop,” he said. A day later their central heating was cut off, electricity went on March 1st, mobile communication and radio two days later. They were forced to risk their lives by cooking outside.. The city is devastated in a way no European city has been devastated since the end of the second World War.
What is certain is that his troops have devastated what was once a prosperous, peaceful port city. In his insider account of the destruction of Mariupol for Associated Press, journalist Mstyslav Chernov recalled how he watched the “last shreds of the solid middle-class city of Mariupol come apart”. Until March 9th, the Arsentiev family lived in a windowless room in their apartment as a place of refuge. They had a lucky escape when they went to the Mariupol Drama Theatre which was full and could not take anymore refugees. A week later the theatre was hit by a Russian missile which killed hundreds of people.On March 15th a Russian rocket hit their apartment which is at No 112 Budivelnikiv Avenue destroying their home and those around them.
After almost three weeks sheltering in the Mariupol Philharmonic building, they, along with 19 other people they knew, walked to Melekine, a village on the coast of the Sea ofThere they were able to rent a room with electricity, water and a kitchen.
Brilliant. Can we send a few of our flag waving xenephobes the other way?
Mariupol; If you’ve ever wondered how it felt to live in the shadow of a political class that stood idly by while the evil that was 1930s Central Europe, freely purported the horrors of WW2; now you know…