N1 Television's Ana Mlinaric reported live from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday, saying that the city - spared by serious fighting so far - had a 30-minute air raid on Friday. Meanwhile, the Kyiv government reported that in the southern city of Mariupol, heavily shelled by Russian forces, casualties are mounting. Pročitaj više

According to reports from Mariupol, streets are strewn with bodies with nobody to bury them. Friday morning was also difficult in the Dnipro area in the east of the country, which was rocked with explosions for the first time during the Russian invasion which began 16 days ago.

“The situation is somewhat better in towns around Kyiv where some 20,000 people have been evacuated from over the past few days. The Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said that more Ukrainian civilians than soldiers have been killed over the past 16 days,” Mlinaric told viewers.

“The town of Lutsk, some 140 kilometers northeast of Lviv, and the town of Ivano-Frankivsk, some 113 kilometres south of Lviv, were also hit for the first time. Russians reportedly hit strategic targets like the airport and the water supply system,“ she said. She added that the situation had worsened for the Ukrainians who are trying to flee to the West.

“Mariupol has been hit the hardest over the past few days. There is a developing humanitarian crisis there, with 400,000 people stranded in the city. Ukrainian authorities estimate that at least half of them want to leave,” Mlinaric said. Mariupol has effectively been surrounded by Russian forces who pummel the city with artillery shelling.

“The evacuation cannot begin as the Russian side reportedly does not honor the cease fire agreed. The route towards Zaporizhzhia is constantly under shelling. There has been no water or power for days now, and people leave messages on Twitter saying they don’t know if their relatives and friends are alive,” Mlinaric said.

In addition, the bodies of people killed in Mariupol cannot be adequately buried under the shelling, so locals deposit them in mass graves instead.

“More than 1,300 people have died in Mariupol, and they cannot be laid to rest with dignity,” Mlinaric said.