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In Photos: The Destruction of Mariupol

The strategic port city has been badly damaged by two months of fighting, and tens of thousands have fled.
Ukraine warns that time is running out for the last defenders of the southern city of Mariupol as Russian forces close in. 

The city has withstood nearly two months of Russian bombardments, with photos showing widespread devastation of civilian areas and reports of food, water and medicine shortages.

The port city on the Sea of Azov holds great strategic value for Russia as it forms part of a land bridge between Russia-annexed Crimea and the breakaway separatist republics of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.

Moscow has made repeated calls for the city's defenders to surrender, but Ukrainian resistance has continued despite the odds. 

A commander in the besieged Azovstal steel plant issued a desperate plea for help Wednesday, saying his marines were "maybe facing our last days, if not hours."

Here is a look at Mariupol amid the destruction and the ongoing fighting and Avozstal siege:
 
Observers have compared the scenes in Mariupol to Grozny and Aleppo, both of which were flattened by Russian bombing.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
Mariupol residents build a fire on a balcony in a residential building damaged during fighting.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
Smoke belches over the Azovstal iron and steel plant. The last remaining Ukrainian defenders are sheltering in the massive plant along with as many as 1,000 civilians, reports say.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
A woman walks past a bombed residential building. 
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
A Russian serviceman is seen outside the Azovmash factory, one of the Ukrainian fighters' final holdouts;
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
A burned out tank outside the Azovmash plant.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
A sign reading "Children" painted on the side of a van.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko says as many as 100,000 civilians remain in the city.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
The Mariupol Commercial Sea Port.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
With its deep berths, Mariupol's port is the largest in the Azov Sea.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
The port has made Mariupol a key hub for Ukrainian steel, coal and corn exports heading to the Middle East and beyond.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
A local resident's funeral is held on a street.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
Residents have been unable to hold traditional funerals due to heavy shelling.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
 
Many civilians have been buried in mass graves.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS

Author: Editors Desk

Source: The Moscow Times:

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