A Ukrainian port city being catastrophically bombed round the clock by Russian forces is in danger of becoming 'like Leningrad', according to officials.
Mariupol, on the Black Sea, is under constant bombardment from Kremlin airstrikes, with vital civilian infrastructure cruelly targeted in an effort to force the southeastern city into submission.
The then-Soviet city of Leningrad, now called St Petersburg, saw a protracted Nazi siege during World War 2, resulting in 1.5million people killed over two years.
Dramatic maps show how invading troops have closed in, after shelling left citizens without water and in a blackout after the power was cut.
Supplies are also unable to enter and people cannot evacuate.
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As well as missiles raining in, bloody street clashes are also taking place on the outskirts.
Russia has already taken Kherson to the southwest, as well Melitopol to the east.
"They are breaking food supplies, setting us up in a blockade, as in the old Leningrad," the council said in a statement.
"Deliberately, for seven days, they have been destroying [Mariupol's] critical life-support infrastructure.
"We have no light, water or heat again," it added.
The council went onto say it was seeking to create a humanitarian corridor for Mariupol, as well as trying to restore infrastructure.
"Mariupol remains under fire. Women, children and the elderly are suffering. We are being destroyed as a nation. This is genocide of the Ukrainian people," the statement concluded.
The city is home to an estimated 400,000 and is a key target for Russia as its capture would allow Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to join troops in Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed in 2014.
One resident said the people are "terrified" after two days of no water and food is running low.
IT developer Maxim said he filled up his bathtub with water before it was cut off.
He told the BBC today: "The shelling started again at six this morning.
"The city was completely black overnight, there was no source of light apart from the explosions.
"It was quiet for a few hours but then at dawn it started again. We can hear it now from every direction. We are terrified."
Mariupol's deputy mayor Sergiy Orlov said 15 main power lines are now down, with only the natural gas supply left.
Yesterday he described how whole districts have been levelled with the city surrounded by invading forces as artillery rains down.
He said medics could not even get in to retrieve the dead as the Kremlin unleashed "medieval" tactics.
"We are near to a humanitarian catastrophe," he said. "Russian forces are several kilometres away on all sides.
"The Ukrainian army is brave and they will continue to defend the city, but Russia does not fight with their army, they just destroy districts...We are in a terrible situation."
