There are growing fears of a cholera outbreak in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, where officials say the Russian onslaught has left behind a nightmarish landscape of rotting corpses, rubbish and polluted water.
The pro-Ukrainian city council said tens of thousands of deaths from cholera were a “potential real scenario” for Mariupol, where Russia declared victory last month after a weeks-long siege characterised by some of the heaviest fighting of the war, leading to most of the city's population being evacuated.
That exodus has added to the city’s problems because there is now a shortage of doctors and many residents who were unable to leave Mariupol are already old and sick, city officials said.
“In this state of medicine, any infectious disease turns into a deadly epidemic,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. Some city officials have relocated to temporary homes in towns such as Dnipro or Zaporizhzhia.
Dr Margaret Harris, a representative of the World Health Organisation in Ukraine, said damage to infrastructure during the fighting meant water had become mixed with sewage.
The WHO is concerned about the risk of cholera in the ruins and has positioned cholera treatment and vaccination supplies in the area, Dr Harris said.
Cholera is caused by eating or drinking contaminated goods. It can kill within hours if nothing is done, although many people develop no symptoms and treatment is effective if done promptly.
A regular British intelligence update said isolated cases of cholera had been reported since May and said there was a risk of a major outbreak in Mariupol.
This reflected a pattern of Russia being unable to provide basic services in occupied territories, the UK's Defence Ministry said, with access to drinking water patchy and telephone and internet services disrupted.
“Medical services in Mariupol are likely already near collapse: a major cholera outbreak in Mariupol will exacerbate this further,” it said.
Ukraine suffered a significant cholera outbreak in the mid-1990s, which killed about 30 people, and there have been more cases since along the Sea of Azov where Mariupol is located.
The city council said Mariupol was “literally drowning in garbage and sewage”, that water was polluted and that hasty burials, or people being buried under rubble, meant thousands of bodies were decomposing in the summer heat.
-
British citizens Aiden Aslin, left, and Shaun Pinner, right, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim, centre, sit behind bars in a courtroom in the breakaway eastern Ukrainian enclave of Donetsk. The three were sentenced to death by pro-Moscow rebels for fighting on Ukraine's side. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier fires a machine gun near the town of New York in the breakaway Donetsk enclave. Reuters -
The gutted remains of cars lie along a road during heavy fighting in Severodonetsk. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers ride an armoured vehicle near the city of Bakhmut, in the breakaway Donetsk enclave. EPA -
Ukrainian soldiers and members of civilian demining organisations take part in a training exercise for bomb disposal experts in Peja, Kosovo. Getty -
Volunteers clear debris near a damaged shopping mall after night shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
A man walks past a college on fire after a strike in Lysychansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. AFP -
Ukrainian service members near the town of Soledar. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. AFP -
Residents kneel during a funeral procession for senior lieutenant Vasyl Herych, 31, of the 15th Separate Mountain Assault Battalion, who was killed in Perechyn, Ukraine. Reuters -
People hide in a bomb shelter in the city of Lysychansk in the Donbas region. AFP -
Ivan Sosnin, 19, surveys the damage to his home in Lysychansk. AFP -
Ukrainian troops repair a tank in the Donbas region. AFP -
Ukrainian troops fire rockets towards Russian positions at a front line in the Donbas region. AFP -
Volunteers from a Danish NGO demonstrate how to search for explosive devices with help of a loop metal detector, outside the town of Ichnia in Ukraine. Reuters -
A firefighter takes a break after putting out a fire at a house in a district of Kharkiv that was bombed by Russian forces. Reuters -
Plumes of smoke rise from a house on fire after a military strike by Russian forces in Kharkiv. Reuters -
The damaged house of Inna Bobryntseva, a woman who died during Russian shelling, in Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials exhumed her body from her backyard as part of an investigation into war crimes. Reuters -
A man moves items from a damaged shop in Kharkiv after a Russian military strike the night before. Reuters -
Civilian militia men hold shotguns during training at a shooting range on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AFP -
A woman walks by a destroyed apartment building in the town of Borodyanka. AFP -
Rescuers dismantle collapsing structures of a heavily damaged 16-storey residential building in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv. AFP -
A Ukrainian bomb disposal worker carries unexploded ordnance during mine clearance work in the village of Yahidne, in the liberated territories of the Chernihiv region. AFP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre, visits the military during a trip to the Zaporizhzhia region. AFP -
Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer in the Donetsk region as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Ukrainian servicemen manoeuvre a tank near the frontline in the Donetsk region. AP Photo -
The remains of the Darnytsia Car Repair Plant damaged by missile strikes in Kyiv. EPA -
A couple embrace on Maidan square in Kyiv. AP Photo -
Smoke rises from a residential area in Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said several explosions occurred following missile strikes in the Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital with no casualties reported. EPA -
A woman holds a poster showing Russian President Vladimir Putin during a protest against the war in Ukraine at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. AP -
Smoke rises in the background after Russian missile strikes in Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian serviceman pauses before going back to the frontline in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. AP -
Firefighters dampen down a rail facility in the Darnytsia district of Kyiv after a Russian air strike. EPA -
An elderly woman sits in front of destroyed houses after a missile strike, which killed a civilian, in the city of Druzhkivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. AFP -
A man examines an apartment destroyed during shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Five civilians were killed and 20 were injured. EPA -
Residents examine cars destroyed during shelling in Donetsk. EPA -
Civilians are evacuated from apartments destroyed during shelling in Donetsk. EPA -
A man looks on as smoke rises after explosions were heard in Kyiv. Reuters -
Residents chat in front of a destroyed building in Borodianka, as Russia's attacks on Ukraine continue. Reuters -
A monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, damaged by shelling in Borodianka. Reuters -
Men scavenge a burnt Russian military vehicle for parts and scrap metal in Novyi Bykiv. Getty -
A crater and a destroyed building after a rocket attack on a small airfield near Kharkiv. EPA -
Ukrainian howitzers in action at an undisclosed location. AFP -
A girl rides a scooter past a destroyed building in the village of Horenka, Kyiv. AFP -
Pope Francis hugs a child during a meeting at the Vatican with children with disabilities and Ukrainian children who fled their country. Reuters -
Ukrainian emergency works at a damaged building following shelling in Kharkiv. AP -
Members of a medical rescue team gather inside their temporary base in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. AP -
A woman sits at a destroyed bus station in the city of Mariupol. AFP -
Residents are evacuated from Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine. AP
About 22,000 people were killed in the fighting, the council said. An estimated 200,000 left for Ukrainian-held territory, while another 100,000 or so are said to be living under Russian occupation outside Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in May that Mariupol had been “completely destroyed” in the fighting. Russia described it as a liberation after it captured the final Ukrainian stronghold in the city, the Azovstal steelworks.
Western officials considered Mariupol to be strategically important because it links Russian-annexed Crimea with the territories Moscow is trying to seize in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Zelenskyy said in an overnight address that key Donbas cities such as Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were “holding on” against Russia’s attempts to seize the region.
