At about midnight local time, Boychenko said in a message on the “Telegram” account of the city of about 450,000 people on the Sea of Azov: “We are currently looking for solutions to humanitarian problems and all possible ways to get Mariupol out of the siege.”
He added that the priority is to reach a “cease-fire so that we can restore critical infrastructure and establish a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine into the city.”
The capture of Mariupol would constitute an important turning point in the framework of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as this would allow the establishment of a link between the Russian forces coming from the Russian annexed Crimea, and the separatist and Russian forces in the Donbass.
On Thursday, the mayor of the city of Mariupol accused the Russian forces and forces loyal to them of seeking to besiege the city, prevent evacuations and supply the coastal city.
“They destroyed bridges and destroyed trains to prevent us from taking out women, children and the elderly. They are preventing us from getting supplies. They are trying to impose a siege,” Boychenko wrote on Telegram.
The head of the Russian-speaking city also expressed outrage at the Russian justification for its invasion, which is to “rescue” the Russian-speaking population from the alleged Ukrainian “genocide”.