War in Ukraine: As Mariupol's dead are buried in mass graves, its living fight each other for food

Dead bodies had to be buried in mass graves because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces. Photo / AP

The living are looting shops and fighting each other for food, while the dead are being buried in mass graves.

With the world looking in horror at scenes not witnessed in Europe since World War II, the people of Mariupol have been forced into agonisingly desperate measures.

Even before the bombing of its children's and maternity hospital on Wednesday – an act of barbarity which it has now emerged killed at least three people, including a 6-year-old girl, and injured 17 others – much of the city's infrastructure had collapsed.

And as the situation deteriorates further, some of its citizens have begun to turn on each other, amid what aid agencies have described as a "humanitarian catastrophe".

Besieged by Russian troops, Mariupol's residents have been without heat for days, with temperatures dropping to -1C overnight and supplies of food running perilously low.

Some have resorted to breaking into shops and supermarkets to gather supplies for their families.

But in a depressingly stark account of the grim conditions in Mariupol, Sasha Volkov, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross's delegation in the city, reported that others had even begun attacking each other.

Volkov said: "Some people still have food, but I'm not sure for how long it will last. Many people report having no food for children. People started to attack each other for food. People started to ruin someone's car to take the gasoline out."

People line up to get water at the well in outskirts of Mariupol. Photo / AP

More than 1200 civilians are now believed to have been killed in the city of 430,000. The exact toll remains unclear, but the immediate consequences could be seen at one of the city's cemeteries.

Here, workers pushed bodies into a 25m-long (82ft) trench as the sheer number of casualties overwhelmed the city's morgues.

Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, admitted that it had been impossible to identify many of those buried: "We do not have the opportunity to bury them in private graves."

At the maternity hospital, a huge crater in the grounds bore witness to the devastating power of the Russian bombardment.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, emergency workers carried a heavily pregnant woman on a stretcher over the debris while others searched the ruins for survivors, their relatives waiting anxiously for news.

Mariia Moskalenko, 28, still does not know if her mother, a midwife, was working at the hospital when the bombs hit. She now fears the worst.

She fled the southern port city with her 16-year-old brother on March 3, but her 50-year-old mother and 55-year-old father were determined to stay behind to do what they could.

"Because my mother is a midwife and my father owns a car, they are helping people and they can't just leave them," said Moskalenko.

"There are a lot of people who, for example, are too old or who have babies, and they are scared to leave under the bombing and falling rockets."

Now safe in an undisclosed location outside of Ukraine, Moskalenko added: "There is a humanitarian catastrophe happening in Ukraine and they need the world to help them."

Among those injured in the bombing of the hospital is understood to have been a young fashion and beauty blogger called Marianne, who was photographed wrapped in bedclothes as she walked dazed from the building.

A woman walks among the debris of the hospital attack. Photo / AP

Only a few weeks ago, she was posting on Instagram about her excitement at preparing to give birth. In a sign of how low Vladimir Putin's supporters are ready to stoop in their propaganda battle, the Russian embassy in the UK accused her on Twitter of "playing the part" of an injured civilian.

The tweet was later removed by Twitter for violating its rules.

In the face of international condemnation of a "war crime", Russia's defence ministry denied bombing the hospital, accusing Ukraine of a "staged provocation".

At the same time, Sergey Lavrov, the country's foreign minister, dismissed concerns about civilian casualties as "pathetic shrieks" and claimed, without offering evidence, that the hospital had been seized by far-Right fighters using it as a base.

With Mariupol's morgues unable to cope and corpses going uncollected, locals were being advised to tie up the body's hands and legs, cover them and leave them outside their homes.

Some were dragged to the mass graves in carpets or plastic bags. About 40 arrived on Tuesday, and at least another 30 on Wednesday. However, the total number of people that have been buried in the mass graves is not yet known.

About half of those buried were killed in the intense shelling of the city, according to an AP journalist who visited the burial ground. Others died at home from natural causes, but the authorities were unable to arrange for their collection.

As they rolled the bodies into the trenches, workers made the sign of the cross. But with the ongoing risk of bombing, family and friends were not allowed to gather to say goodbye.

At the gates of the cemetery, a woman could be heard asking if her mother was one of those buried in the trench.

She said that she had left her body three days before outside the morgue, with a paper label stating her name attached. Her mother was indeed buried there, the workers later confirmed.

Among those killed in the shelling was 6-year-old Tanya, who died of dehydration on Tuesday while trapped beneath the rubble of her home.

Dead bodies had to be buried in mass graves because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces. Photo / AP

Volkov is sheltering with friends, family and Red Cross colleagues in his office, with children and their mothers staying in the basement. He said that he, like many others, had turned to the black market for vegetables and had enough food for only a "few days".

Continued shelling and bombing has dashed any hopes of repairing the water and sewage systems.

"It's really cold," he said. "We still have some fuel for generators, so we have electricity for three to four hours a day. We have started to get sick, many of us, because of the humidity and cold that we have.

"We still have some storage of potable water. When we run out of the stock, we will boil water from the stream. So we are comparatively good compared to others."

As Ukraine's agony continues, the number of people missing grows.

Using a Ukrainian Instagram account set up to help trace those who have disappeared, one woman begged for news of her husband's aunt, Kuzina Evgenia Vladimirovna.

The 76-year-old, who lives in the Zavodskoy district of Mariupol, was last heard from more than a week ago.

There have been desperate attempts by the city authorities to evacuate civilians. But on Thursday morning, Russian shelling resumed, preventing a humanitarian convoy reaching the besieged city and denting hopes of evacuating trapped civilians.

"Airstrikes started from the early morning. Airstrike after airstrike. All the historic centre is under bombardment," said Petro Andrushenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.

"They want to absolutely delete our city, delete our people."

By the end of the day, Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, had to report that not a single person had been evacuated from the city and that its people's agony would continue.