Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko said that, according to preliminary data, more than two hundred Chernihiv residents died at the hands of the occupiers, - "Suspilne" [Ukrainian media].
"Today we have significantly increased intensity of residential areas shelling throughout the city from all types of weapons - both artillery and aircrafts. For more than a week we have not had a day of aerial bombardment, and today there were several bombardments from high altitudes. The city is burning - houses, shops are on fire ", - the mayor.
There is currently no officially confirmed humanitarian corridor. Therefore, the mayor advises residents to leave the city in small groups because of the high risk of shelling.
According to Atroshenko, a humanitarian catastrophe is beginning in Chernihiv - there is no heating, water, electricity, the supply of medicines is irregular.
"Today we are very worried about all the infections, which are associated with the inability to comply with hygiene requirements ... Many people are ill. There are four times more deaths than before. If previously up to 10 people on average died a day, today we bury 40. These are people who just die of heart attacks and various diseases.These are those who can't stand the war.These are old people with pathologies that would still be alive, but today they can not endure this nervous, psychological and physical stress, "- the mayor.
As fighting is taking place on the outskirts of the city (and the Yatsevo city cemetery is located there), the authorities are forced to use the old closed cemetery to bury the dead.
"We are developing separate plots of land there, there is not enough territory. That is why we bury according to Christian tradition, but in such an unconventional way … We will rebury them afterwards," Atroshenko said.
The mayor stressed that the density of destruction in Chernihiv is very high, "the city's appearance is just awful."
"I am convinced that, based on any written and unwritten rules and regulations, several generations of taxpayers in Russia must pay to restore what they have ruined - their army, their Putin and their beasts who are bombing Chernihiv and other cities, " – Atroshenko stressed.
We will remind, on March 17 around 10 a.m. in the morning the Russian troops fired at civilians in the center of Chernihiv. There are dead and wounded.
The occupiers fired at the dormitory. As a result, a family of 5 died - parents, three-year-old twins and a 12-year-old girl.
On March 16, the bodies of 53 victims were taken to the city morgue.