Russo-Ukrainian War: Zelenskyy Reports Mariupol "completely destroyed"

Mariupol, existing only as a recent memory, has been reduced to rubble. It's difficult grasping the mentality behind such destruction. Bucha, comparatively, will be in Mariupol's shadow. Mariupol was once a bustling city. The destruction speaks for itself. There is no getting around how brutal the Russo-Ukrainian War has become. Everyone should see this.

Monday was not the day to test Linda Thomas-Greenfield or her patience. Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, during a U.N. Security Council meeting didn't waste time sugar-coating her words. Her meaning is readily apparent.

“When men like President Putin start wars, women and children get displaced, women and children get hurt, women and children get raped and abused, and women and children die,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“Since the start of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, Russia has bombed orphanages and maternity hospitals. We’ve seen mass graves with dead children stacked on top of each other.”

"More than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of Mariupol, the city's mayor tells @AP ," The Associated Press tweeted. "Mayor Vadym Boychenko said bodies “carpeted” the streets of the Ukrainian port city and he fears the actual death toll could be double that figure."

Mariupol, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been "completely destroyed". Zelenskyy, with a vividly accurate descriptor, believes the battle for Mariupol is “the heart of the war”. The Ukrainian president, despite Russian atrocities, seeks a peaceful resolution.

“No one wants to negotiate with a person or people who tortured this nation. It’s all understandable. And as a man, as a father, I understand this very well,” Zelenskyy said. “We don’t want to lose opportunities, if we have them, for a diplomatic solution.”

"Ukrainian troops in besieged city of Mariupol warn they may be facing their "last battle" against Russia," tweeted the UK's BBC News.

Mariupol, home to an estimated 431,860 Ukrainians, was Donetsk Oblast's second largest city. The death toll, with no exact figure confirmed, could be in the "tens of thousands".

"New drone footage shows the rubble of a Mariupol theater destroyed in a bombing last month," CBS News tweeted Monday, 11 April 2022. "Ukrainian officials estimated roughly 300 people were killed in the strike on the theater, which had the Russian word for "children" written on the ground at the time of the attack."

Russian troops, ever since the invasion began Thursday, 24 Feb. 2022, have not shied away from targeting civilians. The invasion, internationally condemned, is nothing more than an unprovoked act of aggression.

Matthew Stadlen, a British television presenter and news commentator, correctly observes "Incredible bravery shown by Ukrainian forces in the defence of Mariupol."

"The real cause of the death of Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius in #Mariupol has been announced. He was taken prisoner by Russians and later was shot in his head and his chest. The occupiers threw his body out into the street," Zaborona Media reported via the company's official Twitter account.

Mantas Kvedaravičius, best known for his work on the documentaries Barzakh and Mariupolis, was murdered by Russian troops in Mariupol on Saturday, 2 April 2022. The Lithuanian director, taken prisoner by Russian troops, is reported to have been discovered shot in the head and chest.

The occupiers, treating Kvedaravičius like disposable rubbish, threw his body out into the street. Kvedaravičius was somebody's son. He held a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Kvedaravičius, 45-years-old when he was murdered, was a husband and a father of two children.

President Vladimir Putin, recently described by U.S. President Joe Biden as a war criminal, should be brought to justice for war crimes committed against humanity.