Residents who managed to escape from the besieged city describe to CNNi the situation in Mariupol as "hell".
At the same time, the head of the Donetsk regional administration said that patients and staff are being held captive in Mariupol's regional intensive care hospital.
According to Pavlo Kirilenko, citing information provided by a hospital employee, staff and patients are in the basement while gunfire can be heard constantly outside the building.
"It is impossible to leave. They keep shooting, we are in the basement. Cars can't get close for two days now. Buildings next to us are in flames. The Russians have brought about 400 people from neighboring buildings," this official reportedly said."
The shelling is constant in the city, with a Ukrainian official saying that on Tuesday "we counted 22 aircraft bombing our city and at least 100 bombs. The damage is terrible."
Some 35,000 people are trapped while 2,500 civilians have died, Ukraine estimates. Those who are there have no electricity, water or heating.
One woman who managed to leave the city said she had spent two weeks in a basement with about 60 others, leaving only occasionally to retrieve items from her apartment.
Another woman said she let 17 people stay in her house after their homes were destroyed and cooked soup in her garden using rainwater.
Shells were flying over her head flying "24 hours a day".
For weeks, there has been a failure to create safe corridors to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, which has been under siege since March 1.
However, Ukraine's deputy prime minister announced that about 20.000 people managed to leave on Tuesday.
Source: cnn.gr
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