Ukrainian army officer Serhiy Volynskyy is defending the Azovstal steel mill where hundreds of civilians are sheltering.

RELATED: Putin blockades hundreds of civilians inside Mariupol steel plant https://bit.ly/37OdID7

About 100,000 residents remaining in Mariupol face “mortal danger” because of the shelling, as well as intolerable and unsanitary living conditions, the City Council warns. Threats include cholera, dysentery and E-coli, the council said in a statement. Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the city lacks water and sewer due to unrelenting Russian airstrikes. And he fears the warming weather will speed decomposition of thousands of corpses under the rubble, fueling powerful and deadly epidemics.

“The occupiers are unable to provide the existing population with food, water and medicine – or they are simply not interested in it,” he said. “They are blocking all evacuation attempts. Without it, people will die. An immediate and complete evacuation is needed.”

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