Civilians Can't Leave Mariupol, President Zelenskiy Blames Russia: This Is Terror From Experienced Terrorists

A building in Mariupol, Ukraine that was hit by a Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/mvs.gov.ua/Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Hundreds of thousands of civilians were still trapped in Ukrainian cities on Thursday, sheltering from Russian airstrikes and shelling as talks between Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers made little progress.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine entering its third week, officials in Mariupol said Russian warplanes were again bombing the besieged southern port city, where a maternity hospital was destroyed on Wednesday.

Not a single civilian was able to leave the Ukrainian city of Mariupol which was besieged on Thursday because Russian forces failed to honor a temporary ceasefire to allow evacuations, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television.

Attempts to deliver food, water, and medicine to the city failed when Russian tanks attacked humanitarian corridors, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised address.

"This is truly the terror of an experienced terrorist," he denounced.

"The world needs to know this. I have to admit it, we are all dealing with a terrorist state," President Zelenskiy continued.

A building in Mariupol, Ukraine, that was hit by a Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/mvs.gov.ua/Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine)

President Zelenskiy further said Ukrainian authorities managed to evacuate nearly 40,000 people on Thursday from five other cities.

Separately, aid agencies say humanitarian aid is urgently needed in Mariupol, where residents are running out of food, water, and electricity. His arrest would allow Russia to link pro-Moscow enclaves in the east and Russia's annexed Crimea in the south.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said 400,000 people were trapped in the city which had been through 'two days of hell'.

"Every 30 minutes planes arrive over Mariupol city and work in residential areas, killing civilians, old people, women, children," he said in an online post.

Petro Andrushenko, the mayor's adviser, said Russia wanted to "erase our people. They want to stop any evacuation."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has so far failed to achieve its goals, but has caused thousands of deaths and forced more than 2 million people to flee Ukraine, where several cities are under siege.

For information, the Russian Defense Ministry said it plans to declare a ceasefire on Friday and open humanitarian corridors from Mariupol as well as Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv.