A Ukrainian MP has written a heartbreaking thread about how his home town of Mariupol has been destroyed.
Dmyrto Gurin took to social media after his city came under seige, with an estimated 200,000 people waiting to flee.
Hospitals in Mariupol are facing desperate shortages of antibiotics and painkillers, and doctors performed some emergency procedures without them.
The lack of phone service left anxious citizens approaching strangers to ask if they knew relatives living in other parts of the city and whether they were safe.
MP thread
Commenting on the crisis, Gurin penned a thread explaining the destruction, with his parents currently struggling to survive in the face of a relentless Russian onslaught.
Read the heartbreaking account in full below:
1.
1/I am a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. My parents are now in Mariupol, in a district with 150,000 residents that was razed to the ground.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
2.
2/The house where I grew up was bombed. It's a 9-storey building in a classic Soviet modernist block. The bombs hit all the buildings around it. My school was also hit.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
3.
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3/There is no military infrastructure in the area at all, and yet the area was carpet-bombed just like Aleppo.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
4.
4/My mom is 67; my dad 69. The last time I heard from them was day before yesterday at 9 am. The conversation lasted 30 seconds. Their phones are dead. Their neighbor had 20% charge left. Yesterday he said they are alive. There is no mobile network anymore.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
5.
5/The last thing I know about them is that my mother has high blood pressure and a bacterial infection, and no access to medicine, and my father barely got away from the artillery fire opened at the civilians who wanted to flee via the 'green corridor'.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
6.
6/I lived in Putin's Russia for 12 years, from 2002 until Maidan 2014. I knew it would be bloody. I knew Putin would bomb cities, hi did it everywhere.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
7.
7/My parents didn't believe Russia would attack. When the first bombs fell, they refused to evacuate. They thought the army would just quickly pass through the city and they would sit it out. They already ran in 2014 and thought they are too old to run again.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
8.
8/When they realized that Russia wouldn't hesitate to bomb Russian-speaking cities, it was too late. Now they are hiding in a basement. Fortunately, they are Ukrainians, i.e. they have enough conservation stocked to last through a nuclear war.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
9.
9/But there is no electricity, water and heating in Mariupol. Due to constant shelling, the infrastructure cannot be repaired. +3C during the day, -3C at night. In three days -7C.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
10.
10/There was supposed to be a humanitarian corridor the day before yesterday. Meeting points for civilians were announced. Shelling along the highway didn't stop, evacuation was impossible, so people were taken to bomb shelters.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
11.
11/30 mins later, the meeting points were hit with artillery fire. Yesterday? You won’t believe, same shit. Today? Putin promised to open green corridor to Macron, to whom he lied in the face just two weeks ago
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
12.
12/I bet, "Ukrainian Nazis will shoot the evacuation column with Grad launchers." The only thing I think about is whether my parents will be lucky in this lottery.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
13.
13/The shelling never ceases in Mariupol; the Russian army went into a frenzy. It's fun for them to bomb residential areas.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
14.
14/ NATO says closing our sky would cause WWIII. Excuse me, but what the hell started then 11 days ago? Europe simply decided to wait until Putin said that NATO should withdraw its troops from Poland under the threat of nuclear bombing of cities.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
15.
15/ Fresh data. Russian troops heavily mined the highway from Mariupol and chaotically the fields around.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
16.
16/ Holy fuck. This is Russian idea of liberation in Mariupol. pic.twitter.com/dS9Kbbc7HJ
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
17.
17/ First 12 days of WW3: in Ukraine destroyed or partially destroyed 34 hospitals, 202 schools, 1500 residential buildings including multi-storey. After Maidan we invested into schools and hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild them in a modern way.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
18.
18/ Btw, do you remember this news? Intelligence confirmed I'm on this list, as are three of my other friends — MP, businessman and civil activist. Why? https://t.co/oKRoVzjYrU
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
19.
19/ I’m naturally Russian-speaking, I lived in Moscow, I found there love of my life. But! During 8 years I worked on the top-level positions in reform projects. My last project — 8 articles of the Constitution of Ukraine in the new edition.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
20.
20/ That what Russia wants to kill — people who change Ukraine. I think there are a lot more people on these lists that I know, I only asked about three, Russia wants to kill them all. Once again: Russia want to kill MPs — that’s denazification!
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
21.
21/ And another funny story of how this war started for me. February 24th, I couldn't sleep. While many had thought I was overreacting, including my friends and my parents, after 12 years in Putin's Russia, I was 100% sure that war was about to break out.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
22.
22/ And I had a gut feeling it was going to happen that night, or maybe the next one. At dawn, my Twitter feed exploded with the news that Putin, indeed, had declared war on us.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
23.
23/ It happened the moment I found the video where Putin announces his 'special operataion to protect the people'; these words coincided with the first rocket explosions in the distance.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
It was a reeeeal immersion experience.
24.
24/ I pulled down the curtains so that if they start bombing my block, and the windows break, it might prevent the shards from reaching my bed (so naive). And then I finally fell asleep for an hour and had no dreams.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
25.
25/ I still have no contact with my parents.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
26.
26/ The most fashionable photos of the season – with British grenade launchers (there are Russian tanks you can shoot, it’s fun). Two deputies of the Kyiv local council in the territorial defense unit. Vadym Vasylchuk, Yury Fedorenko. It’s a shame I can’t handle weapons yet. pic.twitter.com/NhqnpyAs9T
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 7, 2022
27.
27/ Day 7 of the siege of Mariupol
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
A humanitarian convoy was formed towards the city. 9 trucks of food, water and medicine. 60 buses for evacuation of Mariupol residents. Last news: convoy had just left.
28.
28/ The route is partially mined and we do not know exactly where, some areas are controlled by the invaders. Therefore, the fact that the convoy left does not mean that it will reach Mariupol.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
29.
29/ Mobile networks are partially up but it is very difficult to find someone due to low phones. Neither parents nor their neighbors are available, but now there is a little more news from Mariupol.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
30.
30/ Russia is deliberately and systematically bringing the city to a humanitarian catastrophe. What will happen in 2-3 days is very difficult to imagine. Today it was reported that people are being buried in mass graves due to constant shelling.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
31.
31/ Russia offers to go to their territory. What it looks like: in one of the villages under Russian control soldiers go from door to door and inform people that either they agree to evacuate to a Russian filtration camp or the village is razed to the ground with artillery.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
32.
32/ An interesting choice between slavery and death. And what a style! Filtrations camps in Europe again! No-no, dear @NATO, it’s not WW3, it’s just Ukrainian peoples who are forced to go to filtration camps. Of course let’s wait until Polish people will be forced to go there.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
33.
33/ Ukrainian army holds the city securely, but the civilian infrastructure is simply destroyed. Everyone is waiting for the humanitarian corridor. Everyone is praying that the Russians don't bombard him with artillery.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
34.
34/ People gather during the day and cook food near houses on fires.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
35.
35/ The house is right next to my school. It had a store where we ran for buns during breaks between lessons. pic.twitter.com/xWEgGpYlU5
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
36.
36/ News from Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Russian troops attack Mariupol in the direction of the humanitarian corridor. Why didn't I even doubt it? I stopped wishing death on Russian soldiers and started wishing death on their children.
— 🇺🇦 Дмитро Гурін, нардеп (@DmytroGurinMP) March 8, 2022
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