Aid worker and former US government official Ahmed Khan is in Mariupol. He brings this report from the devastation wrought by Russian barbarities.

Khan: Last week President Biden labeled Russia’s President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. If he was looking for proof, he’d only need a few minutes in Mariupol.

Since the first bombing almost three weeks ago, besieging Russian forces have relentlessly shelled this city of 400,000 people. It is a barrage of death, indiscriminately raining fire on maternity wards, apartment buildings, theaters and homes.

As a humanitarian aid worker, I thought I had seen it all. I am writing this from Kyiv, surrounded by destroyed apartment buildings and rubble. But according to stories told by those who have escaped from this beseiged town, Mariupol is far worse. I’ve spent the last week speaking to survivors, those who have escaped after more than a fortnight of incessant shelling.

Ivan, a Mariupol resident and Red Cross volunteer, says conditions are beyond the point of dire. “It is impossible to stay here, all houses are destroyed, there is nowhere to hide — no water, no light, no food, no medicine.” There are only three Red Cross representatives left inside Mariupol. “But no one can do anything,” says Ivan.

Olga, a 35-year-old woman I spoke to, was a month ago only worried about growing her beauty salon in the once-bustling port city and the increasing independence of her 19-year-old son. Today, she recalls the sensation of being thrown back nearly 2 meters by the force of an explosion. She talks about the black plastic bags that cover the heads of dead bodies on the street. In a world where shells fall incessantly from the sky, it is the only dignity afforded the dead.

Olga tells me of the faces of the elderly, who peer out of their windows. Many can’t move from their apartments, so they will sometimes ask passerbys for food, for a piece of bread. She thinks about how many are just waiting to die because there is no food.

She remembers the aftermath of mortar bombs hitting a bread line, which attracted so many people desperate for food. Blood, arms, legs. Other survivors talk about people showing up in shelters with no hands and no arms, covered in blood.

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The horrors are just starting to spill out. Some footage has found its way to the outside world, but even basic communication is a challenge. Mobile phones and telephone lines stopped working about 12 days ago. No aid is getting in and few people are getting out.

Olga led a 10-car convoy out of her gutted hometown, miraculously dodging hidden landmines and swerving round the dead bodies that riddle Mauripol’s main roads. Of the 10 cars, only 8 made it. Her brother and all his kids are still in the city. She doesn’t know if they’re OK, or when she will hear from them next…