Demonstrators in Tel Aviv attend a rally in support of Ukraine after Russia launched a massive military operation against its neighbor.
Protests erupted in Russia and around the globe on February 26, with thousands taking to the streets in support of Ukraine, which is facing the third day of an all-out invasion of Russia forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Russians who have opposed the war that their president, Vladimir Putin, has ordered on their neighboring country and urged them to call for an end to the invasion.
"I want the people of Russia to hear me," he said in a video address. "Absolutely everyone."
"[There are] thousands of dead [Russian] soldiers, hundreds of prisoners of war who don’t understand why they sent them to Ukraine, sent them to Ukraine to die and kill others. The sooner you tell your leaders that the war needs to be immediately stopped, the more your soldiers will survive."
Photo Gallery:
Protests Erupt Around The Globe Against Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
He singled out several prominent Russians to thank and also praised the "thousands" of Russian citizens who have called for an end to the war.
The independent OVD-Info monitor that keeps tracks of arrests during protests said that more than 3,000 people had been arrested in Russia in protests related to the invasion, including 467 who were detained on February 26 in 34 cities.
Outside Russia, protest rallies increased as Russian troops moved in closer to Kyiv in what could be the final battle for Ukraine following Putin’s order to invade.
In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, about 30,000 people hit the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, holding Georgian and Ukrainian flags and singing both countries' national anthems.
Georgia, like Ukraine, is facing a Russia-backed separatist movement following a brief war with Russia in 2008. Moscow-backed forces have since held the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"We have sympathy for the Ukrainians, perhaps more than other countries, because we've experienced Russia's barbaric aggression on our soil," 32-year-old taxi driver Niko Tvauri told AFP.
Teacher Meri Tordia added: "Ukraine is bleeding [and] the world watches and talks about sanctions that won't stop Putin."
In Tehran, a small protest gathering was held outside the Ukrainian Embassy where people chanted “Death To Putin,” according to amateur videos posted online. Some were carrying candles and the Ukrainian flag.
The Iranian government has not endorsed the Russian invasion but has blamed alleged “NATO provocations” for the crisis.
Tehran has said that war is not the solution to the crisis.
In Switzerland -- which often prides itself on its neutral stance in conflicts -- thousands of people gathered across the country, including about 1,000 outside the UN's European headquarters in Geneva.
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Protesters carrying Ukraine's national colors of blue and yellow marched to the Broken Chair -- a large sculpture symbolizing the civilian victims of war.
They demanded tougher actions from the Swiss government, which has not yet imposed strict measures against Russia, so far sticking to its traditional stance of not taking sides.
Protests with crowds numbering into the low thousands were seen in many other countries, including in Russia's neighbor Finland, where thousands of people gathered in the capital, Helsinki, shouting, "Russia out! Down with Putin!"
Around 3,000 people gathered in Vienna, with signs that said "Stop The War" and speeches from Austria's Ukrainian community.
In Britain, hundreds of protesters headed to Russia's embassy in London, with some defacing the street sign of St. Petersburg Place opposite the embassy with fake blood.
In Rome, protesters responded to a call of trade unions and nongovernmental organizations and gathered around a podium with the words "Against War."
The night before, thousands had taken part in a torchlit procession to the Italian capital’s famed Colosseum.
Protests were also seen in places as diverse as Israel, France, Greece, Argentina, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan.
In Montreal, dozens of demonstrators braved a snowstorm to protest outside Russia's consulate.
"I am against this war. I hope this is the beginning of the end of this regime," Russian Elena Lelievre, a 37-year-old engineer, told AFP.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian, Russian, and Georgian services, AFP, and AP
March 9 (Reuters) -
Russia's rouble tumbled to record lows in onshore trading on Wednesday despite
measures by Moscow to shore up its battered economy and safeguard hard currency
availability amid fresh economic sanctions triggered by its invasion of
Ukraine.
Catching up after two
days of market closure, the rouble jumped to 120.83 to the dollar on the Moscow
Exchange before clawing back some losses to close at 120, or 12.5% softer than
its Friday close.
It closed 6.3% weaker
against the euro at 127 after hitting a record 131 per euro in early trade.
Offshore rouble
trading was also thin with large disparities in pricing: On Refinitiv, the
rouble stood at 129 to the dollar while on the EBS platform it was bid at 138
from the previous 130 close, down 5.8% .
Russia's financial
markets have been thrown into turmoil since its invasion of Ukraine prompted
severe economic sanctions.
On Wednesday, the
European Union froze ties with the central bank of Belarus, an ally of Russia
in its Ukrainian invasion, and top banks there. read more
"If we just take
a step back and think about the near term, the headlines about lack of
liquidity, how the military situation evolves, that will determine a lot of the
near-term trading," said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO
Wealth Management.
"But if we think
about the long term economics, a very weak rouble certainly makes sense for the
foreseeable future."
The central bank has
more than doubled its key interest rate to 20% and the government has rolled
out support measures, but Russian assets have been sold heavily and the rouble
is now down around 30% against the dollar in Moscow since Russia sent troops
into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
On Tuesday, the central
bank said it was offering additional crisis support to financial firms and that
banks were banned from selling foreign currency to its citizens for the next
six months, a move seen aimed at preserving precious hard currency in the
country. read more
The finance ministry
said Russian banks will be allowed to lend to companies controlled by
non-residents, which would allow companies wishing to do business in Russia to
operate as usual.
Trading in equities on
the Moscow Exchange remained closed. Stocks last traded in Moscow on Feb. 25.
BMO's Ma said that
once the stock market reopens there is a chance that prices will drop further
than what their longer-term value will be, but timing that will be very hard.
"It's certainly
not something for anyone who is unwilling to take an extreme amount of risk
because the reality is that many international investors simply want out and
price doesn't really matter," said Ma.
Russia's 5-year credit
default swaps - a measure of the cost of insuring exposure to the country -
soared sharply to a record 2,960 basis points and was recently at 2,939 bps .
Annual inflation in
Russia accelerated to 9.15% in February from 8.73% in January, its highest in
seven years, with prices soaring further on a weakening rouble. read more
Michael Metcalfe,
global head of macro strategy at State Street Global Markets, said in a
research note that there were signs prices in Russia had risen sharply since
the rouble's slump - more so than in prior currency collapses.
"If it were
sustained in the coming weeks and months, (this rate) could see the Russian
annual inflation rate almost double in the coming months," Metcalfe wrote.
Reporting
by Reuters; editing by William Maclean, Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis
Russian President Vladimir Putin (l) shakes hands with President of the Peoples Republic of China Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Qingdao on June 10, 2018. (Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
The Chinese Communist Party is an ally of Russia and can’t be trusted to help resolve the Ukraine crisis, U.S. lawmakers told The Epoch Times.
The warning comes amid growing calls from Ukraine and elsewhere pressing the regime in Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to mediate an end to the conflict.
China’s stance on the war has been under intense international scrutiny since Russia first opened fire against Ukraine. Despite the repeated urging of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Beijing to “make its voice heard,” and Kyiv calling for the regime to leverage its diplomatic relations with Moscow to press for a ceasefire, Beijing has carefully sidestepped the topic, refusing to denounce Russia’s aggression or join Western sanctions on Moscow.
It’s now the only major country in the world that refuses to call the Russian action an “invasion.”
“China has been deliberately, consistently, and deeply unhelpful throughout this crisis,” a spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times.
“The Chinese Communist Party uses ‘sovereignty’ as an excuse for its aggression across Asia, but has refused to condemn Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine,” the person said, referring to the regime’s claim that it holds sovereignty over the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan, which it seeks to absorb by force if necessary.
Beijing’s stance shouldn’t be surprising in view of the mutual interests of the two countries’ leaders, the spokesperson said. China’s leader Xi Jinping views Russian President Vladimir Putin “as an ally in their mutual goal of undermining the United States and our allies.”
‘Hypocrisy’
On day 12 of Russia’s attack, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the country’s friendship with Moscow as “rock solid,” an affirmation stated after Xi and Putin announced a “no limits” partnership between the two countries in early February.
Wang also for the first time signaled China’s willingness to provide “necessary mediation” in the conflict, but rejected the possibility that a diplomatic fallout would hinder China’s relationship with Russia.
“No matter how precarious and challenging the international situation may be,” he told reporters, China and Russia will “steadily advance our comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.”
Wang’s remarks showed plainly enough that the world can’t put its hopes on China to end the bloody conflict, said Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.).
“While the world works to rally support for Ukraine, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Russia his country’s ‘most important strategic partner,’” she told The Epoch Times.
“As authoritarian regimes seek to undermine freedom and democracy around the world, we know Xi Jinping’s regime cannot be a trusted mediator.”
A rescuer pushes a cart with an elderly woman during the evacuation by civilians from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 8, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
There’s also a touch of irony in China’s tacit support for Russia.
“Ukraine is exposing the hypocrisy of the Chinese Communist Party. They preach non-interference in internal affairs of other countries but refuse to condemn an invasion of a sovereign state,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times.
“And they condemn Taiwan’s desire to separate from the mainland but support Putin recognizing breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine.
“They hypocritically support Russia’s criminal invasion because they share a common goal with Putin, to impose a new global order with them at the top and America relegated to becoming a second-rate power.”
The island of Taiwan faces a similar predicament to Ukraine due to the growing threats from its larger neighbor. Chinese warplanes have continued to harass Taiwan on a regular basis since the Ukraine war started, and the regime has held multiple military drills in the South China Sea, heightening anxieties for the island.
People who fled the war in Ukraine wait in line to board a bus behind removable barriers as Police officers and Polish Territorial defense soldiers help to manage the crowd after crossing the Polish Ukrainian border in Medyka, Poland, on March 8, 2022. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
The Chinese regime has come to Moscow’s aid as the latter sustains punishment from the West.
After Mastercard, Visa, and American Express cut off their services in Russia, the country’s banks turned to China for alternatives.
Bilateral trade has surged. In the first two months of 2022, China’s exports from Russia rose 41.5 percent from the year-earlier period, a growth rate exceeding all other countries, according to Chinese customs authorities.
China lifted all import restrictions on Russian wheat on the first day of Russia’s invasion. By 2024, the two countries are aiming to boost total trade to a record $250 billion.
Meanwhile, there’s growing evidence that the Chinese regime knew of Putin’s plans months ago.
Concerned that Putin would mount a “reckless invasion,” White House officials had engaged China in advance entreating its officials to help avert a war, but China declined, a top U.S. policy adviser recently said in a panel event.
Instead, senior Chinese officials reportedly asked Russia to postpone making a military move until the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Such reports have prompted analysts to argue that the Chinese regime had privately supported Putin’s plans as part of a mutual bid to counter the West.
Rescuers on the scene at a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are locked in a race against time as they try to free survivors from the rubble after the complex suffered a 'direct hit' by Russian rockets yesterday
Rescuers on the scene at a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are locked in a race against time as they try to free survivors from the rubble after the complex suffered a 'direct hit' by Russian rockets yesterday, in what President Zelensky described as an 'atrocity' and 'the ultimate proof of genocide against Ukrainians.'
Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Footage has emerged of badly wounded patients and nurses being evacuated from decimated buildings, while pregnant women were carried out on stretchers into a courtyard covered in rubble and littered with huge craters.
A woman injured in Russian shelling of Mariupol's maternity hospital stands outside wrapped in a blanket amid the carnage
An official death toll for the heinous attack has not yet been established but rescuers are working desperately to find and free those still trapped under the rubble with temperatures in the besieged city set to plunge to minus 4 degrees C overnight
At least 17 people, including women in labour, were injured in the attack, officials said.
An official death toll has not yet been established but rescuers are working desperately to find and free those still trapped under the rubble with temperatures in the besieged city set to plunge to minus 4 degrees C overnight.
An injured pregnant woman walks downstairs in a maternity hospital damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Many of the pregnant women present at the hospital were hiding the the basement at the time of the strike on the orders of hospital authorities - a move indicative of the harsh bombardment suffered by Mariupol's citizens over the past week, and one which likely saved their lives.
Zelensky himself posted a video showing the badly damaged hospital buildings, filmed inside a destroyed ward room with its windows blown out and ceiling partially collapsed. More footage showed a car park covered in rubble and the smouldering wrecks of vehicles as injured families staggered into the freezing air while snow fell.
A Russian attack severely damaged the children's hospital and maternity ward in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter that there were 'people, children under the wreckage' of the hospital and called the strike an 'atrocity'
'Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,' the President tweeted.
He then took to Telegram, where he released a video statement from the presidential palace in Kyiv in which he said the hospital strike 'is the ultimate proof that what is happening is the genocide of Ukrainians'.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the strike as 'depraved' and vowed to step up support to the beleaguered Ukrainian military
Wounded families and patients evacuate from a badly-damaged building at the hospital. Local officials said the damage was 'colossal' and were not able to give an immediate number on the injured and dead
'Europeans, you can't say you didn't see what is happening. You have to tighten the sanctions until Russia can't continue their savage war,' he said.
'What kind of country bombs hospitals? Is afraid of hospitals? Of a maternity ward?
'Was someone insulting Russians? Were pregnant women shooting in direction of Rostov? Was it the ''denazification'' of a hospital? What the Russians did at Mariupol was beyond savagery.'
Ukrainian emergency employees work at the side of the maternity hospital in Mariupol after it suffered a direct hit by Russian rocket strikes on Wednesday
In a separate interview with Sky News, Zelensky added that Russian invaders want Ukrainians 'to feel like animals' by preventing them from accessing food or water, and implored NATO and the West to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
'They want us to feel like animals because they blocked our cities... because they don't want our people to get some food or water.
'Don't wait for me to ask you several times, a million times, to close the sky. You have to phone us, to our people who lost their children, and say ''sorry we didn't do it yesterday.''
Mass grave in Mariupol. Photographer Mstislav Chernov writes that people cannot bury the dead properly due to the constant shelling of the city. March 9, 2022
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meanwhile condemned the strike as 'depraved' and vowed to step up support to the beleaguered Ukrainian military.
'There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless,' the Prime Minister declared.
'The UK is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend against airstrikes and we will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes,' he added.
Mr Johnson later on Wednesday committed to enacting the 'maximum economic cost' on Russia in wake of the bombing, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to say aggression like Vladimir Putin's must 'never again' be allowed to 'grow unchecked' in her speech tomorrow in Washington.
Ms Truss will make comparisons between the Russian president's actions and the World Trade Centre terror attack in 2001, and will urge the international community to change its approach to dealing with antagonistic world leaders.
The White House press secretary Jen Psaki also commented: 'As a mother - I know a number of you are mothers - it is horrifying to see the barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country.'
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Mariupol's city council said the hospital had suffered 'colossal' damage but did not immediately give a figure of the wounded and dead.
The deputy head of Mr Zelensky's office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said authorities are trying to establish the number of victims.
Ukrainian MP Dmitry Gurin told the BBC: 'There are a lot of dead and wounded women. We don't know about children or newborns yet.'
Video footage from the aftermath of the attack showed that large parts of the hospital had completely collapsed, while blood soaked mattresses were pictured lying in hallways.
'Russia committed a huge crime,' said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins. 'It is a war crime without any justification.'
Mariupol has been under heavy Russian bombardment for more than a week, with food, water and electricity cut off several days ago - with the Red Cross describing conditions there as 'apocalyptic'.
The head of the Ukrainian Red Cross said yesterday's strike will likely cause a complete collapse of paediatric care in Mariupol, as much of the hospital's equipment and the paediatric care wards were reduced to ashes.
Local official Pavlo Kyrylenko confirmed the fears in a post on Facebook: The maternity ward in the city centre, the children's ward and the therapy ward at the hospital - all destroyed in the Russian air raid.'
Just hours before the hospital was hit, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that 3,000 babies were without food or medicines and begged for a humanitarian corridor to allow them to flee.
Moscow had promised a ceasefire in the city today so civilians could be evacuated, but failed for the fourth time to keep its word - a move Kyrylenko said 'crossed the line of humanity' before declaring Russians should 'stop calling yourselves human beings.'
Residents of Mariupol were pictured on Wednesday dumping bodies into mass graves dug on the outskirts of the city in a desperate attempt to remove the dead amid the sustained Russian bombardment.
It is not the first time that Russian airstrikes have targeted hospitals. While fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2016, Putin's generals were accused of 'deliberately and systematically' blowing up hospitals as a way of weakening the city of Aleppo ahead of a ground assault.
Observers have suggested that Russia is now using a Syria-style battleplan against Ukraine after its early precision strikes failed.
The Ukrainian Healthcare Center, a think-tank based in the country, says that between the outbreak of fighting on February 24 and yesterday, their team documented 42 cases of Russian forces attacking either healthcare facilities or medics in order to deliberately provoke a 'humanitarian crisis'.
Hospitals had been struck in every theatre where Russian forces were operating, the think-tank said, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv.
'The humanitarian catastrophe is a part of Russia's hybrid war. [It] intends to spread panic, create a flow of refugees at the borders and force the Ukrainian government to surrender,' said Pavlo Kovtonyuk, co-founder of the think-tank.
The bombing took place during what was supposed to be a ceasefire in Mariupol so that civilians could evacuate. It marks the fourth time a so-called 'humanitarian corridor' out of the city has failed because Russian forces opened fire.
The mayor of Izyum, to the east of Kharkiv, said evacuations that were supposed to be underway there yesterday also had to stop because Russians were bombing the escape route. But in Sumy, a short distance away, some civilians had managed to make it out. Successful evacuations also took place in Enerhodar, in the south, with women and children able to leave.
It is feared the evacuations are simply a precursor to Russia stepping up its bombardment of the cities to wear down dogged Ukrainian defenders before rolling in troops and tanks to capture them. CIA Director William Burns, briefing Congress on Putin's state of mind Tuesday, warned the 'angry and frustrated' despot is 'likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties.'
Giving an update on the military situation yesterday afternoon, Ukrainian commanders said Russian units continue to try and surround the capital Kyiv with attacks taking place to the west and north-east of the city, with several highways blocked.
New footage released on Wednesday purported to show Russian armour just 13 miles from Kyiv as the invaders pushed through the town of Irpin.
Fighting also raged close to the city of Sumy in an attempt to surround Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, commanders said. Battles also broke out around the city of Mykolaiv in the south, as Russians attempted to push out from Kherson towards Odessa but were turned back.
Ukrainian commanders also said Russian military police had rounded up 400 activists protesting against the invasion in the occupied city of Kherson - as the long arm of Vladimir Putin's police state reached across the border to grab people on foreign soil.
Russia's defence ministry meanwhile acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that some conscripts had been sent to fight on the frontlines in Ukraine, just days after Putin promised that only professional soldiers would be sent in.
Some associations of soldiers' mothers in Russia had raised concerns about a number of conscripts going incommunicado at the start of what Kremlin calls a 'special military operation' in Ukraine, suggesting they could have been sent to fight despite a lack of adequate training.
The revelation comes just one week after Russia's parliament passed a law imposing a prison term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally 'fake' news about the military.
'Unfortunately, we have discovered several facts of the presence of conscripts in units taking part in the special military operation in Ukraine. Practically all such soldiers have been pulled out to Russia,' the defence ministry said, promising to prevent such situations in the future.
Liz Truss described the hospital attack as 'absolutely abhorrent', but continued to reject Ukraine's request for a no-fly zone to be imposed over its skies.
Speaking in Washington, she said: 'The best way we can protect the skies is through anti-air weaponry which the UK is now going to be supplying to Ukraine.
'Of course the attack on the hospital is absolutely abhorrent, reckless and appalling.'
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said US involvement in a no-fly zone could 'prolong' the conflict, making it 'even deadlier'.
'Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including potentially expanding it to Nato territory,' he said.
'We want to make sure it is not prolonged, to the best of our ability. Otherwise, it is going to turn even deadlier, involve more people and I think potentially even make things harder to resolve in Ukraine itself.'
Earlier, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the MPs that the Ministry of Defence was looking at whether they could supply anti-aircraft missiles as well as more anti-tank weapons.
'We can all see the horrific devastation inflicted on civilian areas by Russian artillery and air strikes, indiscriminate and murderous,' he said.
'It is vital, therefore, that Ukraine maintains its ability to fly and to suppress Russian air attack.'
Mr Wallace said that 'in response to a Ukrainian request' the Government was exploring the donation of Starstreak high-velocity man-portable anti-air missiles.
He also confirmed that 3,615 Nlaw anti-tank weapons had been supplied - up from the previously-announced figure of 2,000 - and 'small consignments' of the Javelin system would also be sent to Ukraine.
Other Western officials expressed concern that Putin could next resort to the use of 'non-conventional weapons' such as chemical weapons, in the conflict.
One official speaking on condition of anonymity said: 'I think we've got good reason to be concerned about possible use of non-conventional weapons, partly because of what we've seen has happened in other theatres.
'As I've mentioned before, for example, what we've seen in Syria, partly because we've seen a bit of setting the scene for that in the false flag claims that are coming out, and other indications as well.'
Before the rocket attack took place, Mariupol's deputy mayor spoke about the dire situation in the besieged city - saying residents had been forced to use melted snow as drinking water, as it runs dangerously low on supplies.
Serhiy Orlov admitted that he didn't know how long the blockaded urban centre would be able to continue under siege as he spoke to CNN's John Berman about the devastating bombings on Wednesday.
Orlov said today was their fifth attempt to provide a humanitarian corridor to get supplies and transport into Mariupol, but he added that by 3pm local time, the buses had not made it anywhere near the city.
He said many residents are unable to leave as Mariupol is being bombed 'each second', after Russian forces have broken their ceasefire agreement despite agreeing to open 'humanitarian corridors' allowing citizens to flee.
'There is no ceasefire, any ceasefire in Mariupol, Mariupol is under continuous shelling from the artillery and bombing. Each hour, each minute, each second,' he added.
Mariupol, which has been under blockage for eight days, is one of the Ukrainian cities worst hit since the invasion began, with Russian forces bringing widespread destruction to residential and administrative centres.
Speaking about the devastation across the city, Orlov said Russian forces had destroyed their biggest steel planter as he warned that the situation is 'unmanageable'.
He praised the bravery of the Ukrainian army, but warned that it is the humanitarian crisis is also worsening, adding: 'We are not able to protect our lives.'
President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday warned that the port city was running dangerously low on food, water and medicine.
Ukrainian territorial defence forces have been able to deliver vital supplies to some residents, but many more remain isolated and unable to access lifesaving rations.
Reiterating Zelensky's stark warning, Orlov said there is no more electricity, heating, gas or water supplies in Mariupol, adding that residents have had to resort to collecting wood to make fires for warmth and using melted snow as drinking water.
'It's an awful situation and I cannot imagine in my mind that it's possible in the 21st century, but it is true,' he said.
When asked how long the city might be able to continue under siege, Orlov admitted he 'didn't know' as he claimed there are at least 3,000 infants who are currently without food.
American talk show host Berman also asked the deputy mayor whether his own family are safe, after he previously spoken about being unable to reach his parents.
In response, a devastated Orlov said the district where his parents lived has been completely destroyed, saying it 'does not exist anymore', as he admitted he doesn't know if they are alive.
He added: 'The district where they live is flattened and I'm not sure that I can see them anymore. But I hope and pray they are alive.'
Ukrainian commanders said today that Russia's attack on the country has 'slowed significantly' with no major gains in any sector while its forces were bolstering defenses in key cities and 'holding the line.'
In the northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces are placing military equipment among residential buildings and on farms, the Ukrainian general staff said. And in the south, it said Russians dressed in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv. It did not provide any details of new fighting.
In Kyiv, back-to-back air alerts Wednesday morning urged residents to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible over fears of incoming Russian missiles. Soon after an all-clear was given for the first alert, a second alert followed.
Such alerts are common, though irregular, keeping people on edge. Kyiv has been relatively quiet in recent days, though Russian artillery has pounded the outskirts.
Kyiv regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said the crisis for civilians was growing in the capital, with the situation particularly critical in the city's suburbs.
'Russia is artificially creating a humanitarian crisis in the Kyiv region, frustrating the evacuation of people and continuing shelling and bombing small communities,' he said.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson continued to resist calls to drop visa requirements for Ukrainians fleeing the violence, insisting the security checks were vital to prevent President Putin infiltrating agents into the UK.
The Prime Minister said a thousand visas had been granted under the scheme allowing relatives of people in Britain to flee the war zone to join their families and he promised another programme allowing individuals to offer a home to Ukrainians would be set out in 'the next few days'.
More than 2 million people have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
'We know how unscrupulous Putin can be in his methods, it would not be right to expose this country to unnecessary security risk and we will not do it,' he said.
'We are going to be as generous as we can possibly be, but we must have checks.'
His comments in the Commons followed a call from Ukraine's ambassador to the UK to temporarily drop the visa requirement.
Vadym Prystaiko hit out at the bureaucracy of the British system, telling MPs: 'I don't want to see these pictures of people banging at the doors in Calais and scratching the doors which are quite sealed.'
It came as Russia warned the West that it is working on a broad response to sanctions that would be swift and felt in the West's most sensitive areas, after the US announced a ban on gas and oil imports - with the UK also banning Russian oil and the EU presenting a plan to wean itself off Russian gas by 2030.
'Russia's reaction will be swift, thoughtful and sensitive for those it addresses,' Dmitry Birichevsky, the director of the foreign ministry's department for economic cooperation, was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.
Meanwhile China, which has been attempting to pacify both sides in the conflict, warned that moves by 'US-led NATO' have pushed Russia-Ukraine tensions to 'breaking point'.
As Moscow's forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, the fighting has thwarted attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians.
One evacuation did appear successful, with Ukrainian authorities saying Tuesday that 5,000 civilians, including 1,700 foreign students, had been brought out via a safe corridor from Sumy, an embattled northeastern city of a quarter-million people.
That corridor was to reopen for 12 hours on Wednesday, with the buses that brought people southwest to the city of Poltava the day before returning to pick up more refugees, regional administration chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said.
Priority was being given to pregnant women, women with children, the elderly and the disabled.
In the south, Russian troops have advanced deep along Ukraine's coastline in what could establish a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
The city of Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the encircled city of 430,000.
Corpses lie in the streets of the city, which sits on the Asov Sea. Hungry people break into stores in search of food and melt snow for water. Thousands huddle in basements, trembling at the sound of Russian shells pounding this strategic port city.
'Why shouldn't I cry?' Goma Janna demanded as she wept by the light of an oil lamp below ground, surrounded by women and children. 'I want my home, I want my job. I'm so sad about people and about the city, the children.'
Tuesday brought no relief: An attempt to evacuate civilians and deliver badly needed food, water and medicine through a designated safe corridor failed, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had fired on the convoy before it reached the city.
Mariupol, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, is in a 'catastrophic situation.'
Natalia Mudrenko, the highest-ranking woman at Ukraine's U.N. Mission, told the Security Council that the people of Mariupol have 'been effectively taken hostage,' by the siege. Her voice shook with emotion as she described how a 6-year-old died shortly after her mother was killed by Russian shelling. 'She was alone in the last moments of her life,' she said.
Authorities in Mariupol planned to start digging mass graves for all the dead. The shelling has shattered buildings, and the city has no water, heat, working sewage systems or phone service.
Theft has become widespread for food, clothes, even furniture, with locals referring to the practice as 'getting a discount.' Some residents are reduced to scooping water from streams.
With the electricity out, many people are relying on their car radios for information, picking up news from stations broadcast from areas controlled by Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists.
Ludmila Amelkina, who was walking along an alley strewn with rubble and walls pocked by gunfire, said the destruction had been devastating.
'We don't have electricity, we don't have anything to eat, we don't have medicine. We've got nothing,' she said, looking skyward.
The deputy mayor of Mariupol cast doubt on the evacuations, telling the BBC that Russian forces continued to pound areas where people were trying to gather ahead of being taken out. He said some roads were blocked, while others were mined.
'So we cannot establish sustainable ceasefire and safety route at the moment,' Serhiy Orlov said. 'So we still have... a city in blockade.'
The city is without water, heat, working sewage systems or phone service. Residents have been getting water from streams or by melting snow.
Corpses lay in the streets and authorities planned to start digging mass graves.
With the electricity out, many people are relying on car radios for information, picking up news from stations broadcast from areas controlled by Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists.
The fighting has caused global economic turmoil, with energy prices surging worldwide and stocks plummeting. It also threatens the food supply of millions around the globe who rely on crops farmed in the Black Sea region.
Western countries have rushed weapons to Ukraine and moved to slap Vladimir Putin's Russia with sanctions.
In a further effort to punish Russia, US President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports, and Shell announced it will stop buying oil and gas from Russia.
Ukraine's military said its forces continued defence operations in the Mariupol suburbs.
The military said 'demoralised' Russian forces were looting, commandeering civilian buildings and setting up firing positions in populated areas.
The battle for Mariupol is crucial because its capture could allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Late on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky released a video showing him standing near the presidential offices in Kyiv. Behind him were piles of sandbags, a snow-dusted tree and a few cars.
It was the second video in 24 hours showing him near the country's seat of power, apparently made to dispel any doubts about whether he had fled the city.
