Daria Morozova continues to monitor the observance of the rights of citizens and the social and humanitarian situation in the liberated territories. To this end, today, on March 27, the DPR Ombudsman had a work trip to Mariupol.
In particular, the Human Rights Ombudsman visited the Assistance Centre deployed in the city. It organizes the distribution of food and hygiene kits, water, bread, where people also receive medical care and advice on issues of interest, charge mobile phones. Thousands of Mariupol residents turn to the Centre every day. The Ombudsman clarified the current humanitarian needs of citizens and handed over the necessary medicines to a mobile medical centre operating on the basis of the Centre.
The DPR Ombudsman also assessed the nature of the destruction of the civil and social infrastructure of Mariupol, chatted with the locals.
“Today we talked with Mariupol residents who are not evacuated, but who are on the territory of their hometown. People showed us their burnt and broken houses. They told about relatives who, unfortunately, died during the hostilities. Based on what I heard and saw, I can make an unambiguous conclusion – the AFU and militants from national battalions deliberately strengthened themselves in residential areas, understanding what consequences this would lead to. People were cynically used as a “human shield”. The local population was not even given a chance to escape. Moreover, under the pretext of evacuation, children, the elderly and women from nearby settlements were deliberately brought to the city. At the same time, they began to expel the population from their apartments and organize firing points in them as early as February 22, that is, before the start of the beginning of the special operation. This testifies to the fact that the Ukrainian militants initially planned to wage war directly in the city. And these unprecedented war crimes of Ukraine should be given a proper assessment,” said Daria Morozova.
It should be noted that human rights work in Mariupol unfolds as it is liberated. As in other territories, on-site receptions of citizens by the Ombudsman will be organized here in the near future, and work will continue to fix war crimes of the AFU. Local residents will be provided with all necessary assistance to return to normal life.
