Children in Mariupol ‘drank rainwater from puddles’ as families cowered from bombs – World News
When her home was destroyed by Russian bombs, mum-of-three Yuliia found shelter in a communal basement, where she struggled to feed her young daughters after the port city of Mariupol was targeted by Russian forces
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Ukraine: Children take shelter in Mariupol steelworks bunker
Children in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol were forced to “drink rainwater from puddles” when their home came under attack from Russian forces.
Mum-of-three Yuliia was left devastated when her house was destroyed by Russian bombs and she was forced to flee with her young daughters to a communal basement.
As well as having a severe lack of amenities including having no access to a toilet, shower or electricity.
Yuliia also struggled when one of her daughters, aged six, fell ill – and there was nothing she could do to help, the BBC reports.
After Yuliia and her daughters – aged 11, six and three – were forced to drink dirty water from puddles for days on end, the brave mum eventually made the risky two-mile journey to the nearest well.
A boy sits in his family’s car after arriving with his family at an evacuation point for people fleeing Mariupol
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Getty Images)
Speaking in a video diary for the BBC Wales Investigates programme, Yuliia said: “There was a well three kilometres away. I had to run there under gunfire, under bombs.
“I had money but I couldn’t buy anything because there was nothing anywhere, everything was broken, everything was looted and destroyed.”
The mum-of-three added that on any given day while sheltering in the underground banker, all she would have to feed her three children was one small bowl of soup, while using just a shared glass of water to bathe all of them.
A child stands next to service members of pro-Russian troops in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk Region
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It comes as Russian Armed Forces have been accused of war crimes, with the estimated death toll reaching tens of thousands of people on both sides of the fight.
And Vladimir Putin’s army was dealt another huge blow when it was alleged that two Russian vessels were destroyed by Ukrainian Armed Forces using a Turkish bomb near Snake Island in the Black Sea.
Yuliia’s childhood friend Nataliia, who has been receiving updates every so often from the girls, is sick with worry and desperate for them to join her in the safety of Caernarfon in North Wales.
A child emerges from the Azovstal steel plant during UN-led evacuations
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The accountant, 32, was unable to contact her friend for weeks on end as the war escalated in Mariupol and throughout the rest of Ukraine.
Nataliia had to make do with Yuliia’s intermittent video diary updates from her underground bunker as her husband fought on the front line.
Now, Nataliia says she is doing everything she can to help Yuliia bring her family to Wales as part of the country’s refugee programme.
Meanwhile Yuliia, who says she has seen dead people with “no hands and legs” after brutal attacks from Putin’s regime, is among the estimated 11million Ukrainians who have fled to other European countries.
Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured personnel carrier
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She is currently in neighbouring Poland.
Lifelong friend Nataliia says she would love to have Yuliia join her in Wales, adding: “I was dreaming that one day we will have a cup of tea in our dining room altogether and they can see our life here and have a more happy life. I just would love it.”
Around 27,000 Ukrainian refugees – close to one third of the 86,000 approved visas – are in the UK, as Brits registered in huge numbers to do their bit to help those fleeing the war-torn nation.
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