Mstislav Chernov spoke about the siege of Mariupol, documented by photographer Eugene Maloletka.
“20 days in Mariupol: the team that documented the agony of the city” was the headline of an article about the siege of Mariupol by eyewitnesses to Russian crimes – Associated Press video journalist Mstislav Chernov and photographer Yevgeny Maloletka.
“Mariupol, Ukraine – The Russians were tracking us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were approaching,” said a military correspondent about his 20-day stay in the besieged city.
Since the beginning of the war, Mstislav Chernov and Yevgeny Maloletka have been in Mariupol, where they went on the eve of the war, on February 23. They are the authors of photographs that have spread around the world and confirmed the war crimes of the Russian army and its leadership against the Ukrainian people. Pictures from hospitals, broken streets, the bombing of maternity hospitals and other civilian infrastructure by the occupiers became one of the key levers that persuaded the world community to support Ukraine in this war.
Read also: The leader of the “DPR” Pushilin said that the occupiers will not be able to take control of Mariupol even in a week
“We were the only international journalists left in Mariupol, Ukraine, and we documented his siege by Russian troops for more than two weeks. We were reporting inside the hospital when militants began to roam the corridors. Surgeons gave us white robes to disguise,” said Mstislav Chernov.
The military correspondent told how and why he and Yevgeny Maloletka got to Mariupol. He described the conditions in which he had to work and how many human tragedies he had seen during this time.
“I have never, ever felt that breaking the silence is so important,” he told the Associated Press.
Russian propaganda tried to refute the captured and published evidence of war crimes in every possible way. In particular, footage from the maternity hospital destroyed by Russian shells in Russia was presented as a fake, and a pregnant woman who was taken out of the building on a stretcher was called an actress.
On March 11, in a short call without details, our editor asked if we could find the women who survived the air strike on the maternity hospital to prove their existence. advanced, some with babies, others during childbirth. We also learned that one woman lost a child and then a life, “says Mstislav Chernov.
Read also: Mariupol, native… What's next?
Therefore, the Russian military was tasked with finding them. In turn, the Ukrainian military and defenders of the hero city of Mariupol made every effort to evacuate the last journalists.
“If you are caught, you will be filmed and told that everything you filmed is a lie,” said the soldier who helped us. “All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain.” who once begged us to show the world his dying city, now begged us to leave. He pushed us to the thousands of broken cars that are preparing to leave Mariupol, “said the journalist.
Correspondent Mstislav Chernov and photographer Yevgeny Maloletka were the last journalists to leave Mariupol.
The occupiers do not give up attempts to capture the hero city of Mariupol, exert psychological pressure on the city's residents and even offer the defenders of Ukraine to surrender the city.
Defenders of Mariupol and the Ukrainian authorities responded by refusing this demand.
We will remind, earlier the enemy fired at buses with the children going “green corridors”.
See the special topic: In Kharkov, the occupiers fired on a polyclinic, which housed a humanitarian aid station. Four people died. Medvedev believes that Western sanctions do not affect the Kremlin The former Russian president also confirmed that the decision to start a full-scale war with Ukraine was made by Putin alone. In the Sumy region, the occupiers shot pensioners in their own yard – the Prosecutor General 's Office The Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation. The occupiers opened the headquarters of the United Russia party in Mariupol. Trying to capture Mariupol, Russia killed several thousand citizens in one month. As a result of the bombing of the Drama Theater in Mariupol by the occupiers, about 300 people were killed – the city hall.
