A mosque within the southeastern Ukrainian port metropolis of Mariupol, the place 80 civilians had been taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine’s overseas ministry stated on Saturday.
“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey,” the ministry wrote on its Twitter account.
It didn’t specify when the shelling came about.
Contacted by AFP, the Turkish overseas ministry in Istanbul stated it had “no information”.
However, the Ukrainian embassy in Ankara instructed AFP it had alerted Turkey’s overseas ministry to the assault, with out specifying when or whether or not it had acquired any response.
On Monday, the Turkish consulate within the southern port of Odessa had issued a tweet urging Turkish residents to take shelter within the mosque “with a view to be being evacuated” to Turkey.
The consulate couldn’t be reached by AFP on Saturday.
On Friday, the Ukrainian embassy in Turkey had forwarded to journalists a Facebook put up by Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, who stated: “Right now, 86 Turkish citizens are being covered in the mosque territory. 34 of them are kids.”
Friends and relations of Turks residing in Mariupol stated they had been anxious.
“My brother, Sahin Beytemur, has been living in Mariupol for eight years… We haven’t heard from him since last Saturday,” the 38-year-old shopkeeper’s sister instructed AFP.
Others took to social media to attempt to find the whereabouts of their family members.
“We have not heard from my aunt and cousin who have been living there for 11 days. We have no idea whether they are alive or not. Communication is completely lost we don’t know what to do,” wrote one Twitter consumer, @brsyrdm11.
Turkey is an in depth ally of Ukraine however has refused to chop ties with Moscow and even tried to mediate between the 2 sides, internet hosting a primary assembly of the Russian and Ukrainian overseas ministers on Thursday in Antalya.
‘Humanitarian disaster’
Mariupol has been underneath siege and bombardment for greater than every week and is encircled by Russian troops.
The scenario within the strategic port metropolis was “desperate”, the place civilians have been desperately attempting to flee, however had been with out water or heating, and operating out of meals, a high Doctors Without Borders government stated Friday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Friday: “Besieged Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet. 1,582 dead civilians in 12 days.”
Three individuals, together with a toddler, had been killed when a kids’s hospital within the metropolis was attacked on Wednesday, sparking worldwide outrage.
Against this backdrop, a brand new try is being made to open up a humanitarian hall to permit civilians to evacuate the town in direction of Zaporizhzhia, round 200 kilometres to the north east, stated Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
For days, Ukrainians have claimed that the Russian navy has been pounding the evacuation route, stopping individuals from leaving.
As on earlier days, humanitarian corridors had been additionally to be opened once more round Kyiv.
“I very much hope that the day will go well, that the planned routes will be open and that Russia will meet its obligations regarding the observance of the ceasefire,” Vereshchuk stated in a video uploaded to the web site of the Ukrainian presidency.
As the Russian military continues to advance and besiege Kyiv, strikes hit the city of Vasylkiv on Saturday morning, about 40 kilometres south of the capital.
Eight Russian rockets hit the native airport round 7:00 am (0500 GMT), which was “completely destroyed”, stated the mayor Natalia Balassinovitch, on her Facebook account.
An oil depot was additionally hit and caught hearth, she stated.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)