DELIBERATE TERROR

Russians Abduct 15 Relief Workers Taking Urgent Aid Into Mariupol, Says Ukraine

Ukrainian president says 100,000 still trapped in besieged city, with “no food, no water, no medicine.”

Russian soldiers have been accused of abducting 15 aid workers and drivers and seizing their vehicles after blocking a convoy taking urgent humanitarian aid into the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The Russians had agreed to allow the convoy to go along an agreed route, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the aid workers were “simply captured by the occupiers.” Zelensky described the horrors of the siege in his regular nighttime video address: “There are about 100,000 people in the city—in inhumane conditions, in a complete blockade, no food, no water, no medicine, under constant shelling.” The strategic Sea of Azov port city, which normally has a population of around 430,000, has been a key target for the Russian invaders, who have bombed schools, hospitals, and a drama theater in which hundreds were taking refuge. “We are trying to organize stable humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents, but almost all of our attempts, unfortunately, are foiled by the Russian occupiers, by shelling or deliberate terror,” Zelensky said.