Beleaguered Ukrainian town of Izium ‘at breaking point’ after constant Russian attack: ‘No one to bury dead’

The town is under ‘relentlessly bombardment’ and on the ‘brink of a humanitarian disaster’

The city of Izium in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region is “at a breaking point” as it is rapidly running out of food, medicine and water after being under siege by Russia for two weeks, according to Amnesty International.

The city has been under constant bombardment from the Russian forces with its residents on “the brink of a humanitarian disaster”, said the human rights organisation, that interviewed 26 of the town’s residents.

Izium has been cut off from supplies such as electricity, gas, heating and mobile communications after being exposed to constant rocket fire since 3 March. Reports of the first military attacks on the town first appeared on 28 February.

Deputy mayor Volodymyr Matsokin said in a Facebook post on 15 March that Izium “has been under siege for two weeks”.

“There is no one to bury the deceased,” he added. “The situation is not better than in Mariupol. We are receiving information that those who survived under shelling are now dying from diseases and the lack of medicines.”

Izium and other towns on the frontline “now urgently need humanitarian corridors” for the safe evacuation of civilians and the delivery of supplies to reach those who remain behind, said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Natalia, a resident, told Amnesty after evacuating to the Donetsk region, that her family had survived on leftovers and dry bread for six days.

“We spent six days in the cellar. It’s very small, you have to stand in it, it’s impossible to lie down. As soon as there was a pause [in attacks], we would quickly run out, and get some eggs from the hens,” she said.

Damaged vehicles sit among debris and in Kharkiv city centre in Ukraine, Wednesday (AP)

“Our child was hungry, since we hardly ate. All we had was leftover dry bread, apples from the cellar, canned pickles, and jam… We couldn’t get any other food anywhere, we couldn’t leave our house. Everything was under fire.”

Svitlana, a 72-year-old, said rockets rained day and night. “If this continues for a few more days, the people and the town will be finished off,” she said in a dire warning.

Another woman, Tetyana, who stayed in a shelter with her child, said the town had three five-litre containers [of water] left for 55 people when they were leaving. “I don’t know how they are going to survive,” she said.

In Mariupol, the strategic port city, a Russian airstrike ripped apart a theatre where hundreds of people had taken shelter, Ukrainian officials said.

Many people who had made the theatre into a makeshift shelter for the past three weeks were left buried under rubble, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement. It is not known immediately how many people were killed in the attack.

US president Joe Biden has called Russian president Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” after which the Kremlin reacted saying the comment was “unforgivable”.

This map shows the extent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images)

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