Russian troops bombed a mosque sheltering 80 civilians in Mariupol

A mosque housing 80 civilians, including Turks, was bombed in Mariupol, a port in southeastern Ukraine where thousands of people have been besieged for days, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday.

“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was bombed by the Russian invaders,” the ministry said on Twitter.

“More than 80 adults and children are taking refuge there, including Turkish citizens,” he added, without specifying when the bombing occurred.

The Turkish government refused to react Saturday to reports of the mosque bombing.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, contacted by AFP, said it had ” no information “.

The Turkish consulate in Odessa, an important port in southern Ukraine, had asked Turkish citizens in Mariupol on Twitter on March 7 to take refuge in the attacked mosque, “with a view to evacuating our country”. AFP was unable to contact the consulate.

The strategic city of Mariupol, bombarded for days, comes under a devastating siege.

The inhabitants, barricaded in basements, are cut off, without water, gas or electricity and even fight to get food. It is an “almost desperate” situation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Friday.

” Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet “, with ” 1,582 civilians killed in 12 days “, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Friday.

A children’s hospital and a maternity hospital were attacked on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring many others, sparking an international outcry.

In this context, a new evacuation corridor attempt is planned to allow civilians to leave the city towards Zaporizhia, some 200 km to the northwest, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

For days now, the Ukrainians have claimed that the Russian army has been shelling the evacuation route.

As in previous days, humanitarian corridors around Kyiv were also to be reopened, to evacuate the population of the towns to the northwest of the Ukrainian capital.

“I hope that the day goes well, that the planned routes are opened and that Russia respects its obligations regarding the respect of the ceasefire”, declared Vereshchuk, in a video released by the Ukrainian presidency.

While the Russian army continues to advance and position itself around Kyiv, the attacks reached the city of Vasylkiv, some 40 km south of the capital, on Saturday morning.

Eight Russian rockets hit the local airport around 7 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT), which was “completely destroyed,” Mayor Natalia Balassinovich said on her Facebook account. An oil depot was also hit and caught fire, she added.