Increased fatalities and dead bodies on streets in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol has led to mass burials, according to its deputy mayor.
It comes as Ukraine said a Russian air strike hit a children's hospital in the city, injuring 17 people, and as locals melt snow for drinking water because the city’s heating, electricity, water and communications infrastructures have collapsed.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mariupol deputy mayor Sergei Orlov said 47 people were buried in a mass grave yesterday because there are "too many dead bodies" on the streets for private burial.
He also confirmed that 1,207 people have been killed in Mariupol by shelling and bombing since the start of the Russian invasion.
"Most of these people we found on the street. It is not possible, at the moment, to bury them in private graves.
"Yesterday, we were pushed to use mass graves and bury them. There were 47 persons in one mass grave. It's a terrible situation. We cannot even identify all of them," said the deputy mayor.
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Mr Orlov confirmed an air strike had destroyed buildings in the city centre's hospital campus. The campus houses a maternity hospital, a children's hospital and a children's therapy centre.
"This bomb destroyed the children’s hospital and damaged other buildings. In general, it is the third hospital that was destroyed by Russian bombing.
"Before they destroyed hospital Number 9 - a Covid hospital with 600 beds - and also they destroyed the blood collection station in Mariupol.
"Today it is an awful crime. I can't imagine how they can do this," Mr Orlov said.
He added the exact numbers of deaths and casualties from the attack on the hospital campus are not yet known. Donetsk regional governor said 17 people were wounded, including women in labour.
Being a port city in the southeast, Mariupol is a strategic target for Russia.
The city's infrastructure has been attacked.
"The atmosphere here is very bad. For eight days we are without any utility supply," Mr Orlov said.
He said Russian troops had bombed the electricity supply, water supply, heating system, cellular phone networks and a natural gas pipeline.
"For eight days we are without any electricity and at the moment the temperature outside is below zero.
"It's terrible, but people are happy that we have snow. They are able to collect snow and to melt it to water," said the deputy mayor. He added that people are collecting wood and cooking on open fires.
He said it is impossible to leave the city because the humanitarian corridor is regularly shelled by Russian forces.
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"Because there is no safety route it is not possible to evacuate our citizens," said the deputy mayor and called for a no-fly zone.
"We ask the international community to help us to set up a no-fly area and not to give the opportunity to them [Russian forces] to kill our children and women by bombing," said Mr Orlov.
He added that if a no-fly zone "is not possible" then anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems are needed to protect the city and its citizens.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted yesterday that the "direct strike" on the "maternity hospital" had left children "under the wreckage". He labelled it an "atrocity".
