At 8.23am, the mayor of Mariupol addressed his city on television. He urged everyone to remain calm. “Due to the current situation in the city, the work of schools, kindergartens and other social infrastructure institutions, except for hospitals and healthcare centre, has been temporarily stopped,”Vadym Boichenko said. “We also open all shelters in the city. All utilities and public transport continue to operate.”
Within 20 minutes, seven buildings in Mariupol’s left bank were engulfed in fire after Russian shelling that took a day to put out, killing four people, including a child.
More shelling followed at 3.17pm. Three hours later, instructions as how to act under fire were published and the rules of a new curfew between 10pm and 6am were imposed. An additional train service was put on for those who wanted to leave.
