Kristina Dzholas and her family were among 200 people, including 50 children, who took shelter in the basement of a school as Russians forces unleashed the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war so far on the southeastern city.
Mrs Dzholas also told how on a separate occasion a"bomb fell in our yard" and"blew off one of the legs of a man there, he was bleeding to death and nobody could go and pick him up".Mrs Dzholas, who used to work for Mariupol city council, said there was"constant shelling" and that the walls of their makeshift shelter would"shake, day and night" as they hid from Russian forces.
"I heard, bang, bang. And it came from nowhere. And the walls begin to shake. You get no warning about the danger at the moment of such a shelling."Remains of bombed Mariupol drama theatreMrs Dzholas said fresh water was unavailable in the shelter and so people would go out to collect snow from the ground, rooftops and cars.
Some people have died while cooking food outside on campfires, Mrs Dzholas said, and a mass grave has been dug in a park because there is nowhere else to bury dead bodies. "Our car was in the garage, thank god, the car was intact. If our car had not been spared, we would not have been able to leave. "Shells were flying, There was fighting, it was dangerous, but the chance to leave was the most valuable thing for us at that moment," she said.
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