Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko told CNN on Friday that Russian attacks on the port city of Mariupol have "wiped [it] off the face of the Earth."
"The enemy may seize the land Mariupol used to stand on, but the city of Mariupol has been wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian Federation, by those who will never be able to restore it," he said. "To restore Mariupol, that is something only Ukraine can do."
Kyrylenko said Ukrainian troops were still defending the city and fighting continues on the streets with tanks and other weapons.
"Our defenders are very courageous, and they are holding Mariupol," he said.
Reuters reported Saturday that Russian forces are claiming to have "cleared" the city, which had a population of more than 431,000 before Russia invaded Feb. 24.
"The situation is very difficult" in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal, according to Reuters. "Our soldiers are blocked; the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis.
"Nevertheless, the guys are defending themselves."
Russian forces have laid siege to the city since that time, cutting the remaining residents off from electricity, food, water and heat, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
It would be the first major Ukrainian city to fall under Russian control in the six weeks since the invasion began, giving them control of the Sea of Azov coast and serve as a land bridge between eastern Ukraine and Crimea, the Post report said.
The United Nations has been working to open humanitarian corridors for refugees to flee the city, with approximately 100,000 Ukrainians still believed to be in the combat zone.
"Tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol — which has been an epicenter of horror since the conflict began — and in other locations around Ukraine have now endured 50 days of violence and shelling," UN Under-Secretary-General for Human Affairs, and Emergency relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a statement Thursday. "More than 1,932 civilians have died since Feb. 24, including more than 150 children. This must stop."
Russian attacks have accelerated in the east, and in the capital city of Kyiv since the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva, which might have been struck by two Ukrainian missiles before sinking in the Black Sea on Thursday.
Russia's claim that only a handful of Ukrainians remain defending the city could not be independently verified, Reuters said in its report.
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