[1andrew1]

Mass grave set up as morgues overflow in besieged Mariupol
Guy Chazan in Lviv

Authorities have created a mass grave in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian troops for days, and said that normal burials have become impossible.

“Sadly, there are just too many bodies,” said Vitaly Falkovsky, a local official. “It was a necessary measure because we can’t bury people in the normal way. The morgues are overflowing.”

Enduring Russian shelling for days, tens of thousands of people in Mariupol have been confined to freezing basements and shelters, and are living without water, heat, basic sanitation and a functioning phone network.

Messages passed on to social media from residents of the city said they have been reduced to cooking food on fires in the open air and collecting rainwater to drink.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the humanitarian situation in Ukraine was “increasingly dire and desperate”, with homes “reduced to rubble” and families “huddled underground for hours on end to seek refuge from fighting”.

Russian forces have targeted civilians in what implies a shift of tactics, with reports multiplying of attacks that appear to have been directed at urban and populated areas, a non-profit organisation said in research published on Wednesday.

“There is little doubt that the war in Ukraine will be a massive tragedy for civilians that the world will remember for years to come,” said the European director of the Washington-based Center for Civilians in Conflict.

“Those willing to flee are prevented [from doing] so and those staying are at risk of being killed or being assimilated to combatants,” Beatrice Godefroy added.

https://www.ft.com/content/81630924-...d-006a90972bb0

---------- Post added at 22:19 ---------- Previous post was at 22:05 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

As you served, you know better than anyone that NATO cannot, and will not attack. So that particular angle is mute.

Is NATO's position absolutely that set in stone? Could they look at the situation and think that the humanitarian issues are such that they will intervene?