[imagesource: AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka]

We are 21 days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With so many visuals of death and destruction and heartbreak, it’s easy to become desensitised to what is happening.

We’ve also seen similar visuals coming out of Yemen, Afghanistan, Tigray in Ethiopia, and other regions for years, without as much media coverage and empathy on the world stage.

Still, sometimes you read something that manages to cut through the noise and really hit home.

The Associated Press story headlined ”Why? Why? Why?’ Ukraine’s Mariupol descends into despair’ starts with five paragraphs that everybody should read:

The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into this narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling.

There’s 18-month-old Kirill, whose shrapnel wound to the head proved too much for his little toddler’s body. There’s 16-year-old Iliya, whose legs were blown up in an explosion during a soccer game at a school field. There’s the girl no older than 6 who wore the pajamas with cartoon unicorns, among the first of Mariupol’s children to die from a Russian shell.

They are stacked together with dozens of others in this mass grave on the outskirts of the city. A man covered in a bright blue tarp, weighed down by stones at the crumbling curb. A woman wrapped in a red and gold bedsheet, her legs neatly bound at the ankles with a scrap of white fabric. Workers toss the bodies in as fast as they can, because the less time they spend in the open, the better their own chances of survival.

“The only thing (I want) is for this to be finished,” raged worker Volodymyr Bykovskyi, pulling crinkling black body bags from a truck. “Damn them all, those people who started this!”

More bodies will come, from streets where they are everywhere and from the hospital basement where adults and children are laid out awaiting someone to pick them up. The youngest still has an umbilical stump attached.

If that doesn’t move you, nothing will.

Mariupol’s location as a southern seaport has made it crucial to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans. It’s wedged between eastern territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists and the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The city is now surrounded by Russian troops and subject to constant blasts.

I’ve been verifying multiple videos from the aftermath of bombings in Mariupol with colleagues all day today and there’s only one way to describe what’s been happening there: Mairupol city centre is being flattened, literally.

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) March 16, 2022

Last night, Mariupol Theatre was reduced to rubble following another round of bombing.

Some reports suggest as many as 1 000 civilians were taking shelter there. In fact, the Russian word for ‘children’ had been written on the ground in the hopes that the building might be spared:

The word ‘children’ was painted in large Russian script on the ground outside the Mariupol Drama Theatre, Maxar satellite images collected on March 14 showed. Ukraine accused Russia of bombing the theater on Wednesday. Russia denies the attack https://t.co/JtB56K8eCz pic.twitter.com/iV13h0dBXm

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 16, 2022

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted out a before and after:

Another horrendous war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building is now fully ruined. Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022

Last week’s attacks in Mariupol included a strike on a hospital maternity ward in which women and children were killed.

Scenes from inside the hospital in the aftermath are tough to watch:

The last hospital in Mariupol, by @AP. All others were bombed out by Russia. People doctors can’t save are lined up in the basement, including infants. It’s the most heart wrenching footage of this war. pic.twitter.com/By1J2hW1wD

— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 16, 2022

An accurate Mariupol death toll is impossible to come by. Local officials have counted in excess of 2 500 bodies, but because of the wreckage, many lie uncounted and hidden. The true death toll could be closer to 20 000.

The Russian military has denied any involvement in the airstrike on Mariupol Theatre, saying it was likely the work of Ukrainian far-Right nationalists.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Chernihiv, multiple reports state that Russian troops killed 10 people waiting in a bread line.

Huff Post reports:

Although the [Ukrainian] embassy claimed it was Russian soldiers who “shot and killed” those in the bread line, Russia denied the report, saying its soldiers have only been on the outskirts of the city. CNN reported that the killings were the result of Russian shelling in the area.

Video verified by CNN shows the aftermath of the alleged shelling, with several people lying in the street, apparently injured or dead.

A warning that there are blurred out dead bodies in this footage:

Another atrocity of russian occupiers in Chernigiv today.
They fired on civilians standing in the line to buy bread. At least 10 were killed. pic.twitter.com/dNoDIIuJnx

— Daria Kaleniuk (@dkaleniuk) March 16, 2022

You can follow live updates on CNN and the BBC.

[sources:ap&huffpost]