Once the Children Got Hungry, ‘the Fire Was Gone From Their Eyes’

After Russian forces surrounded the city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, cutting off its water and fuel and preventing aid convoys from entering, Yulia Beley sheltered in a neighbor’s basement with her three daughters and struggled to survive.

Her husband was off defending the city, so she ventured out as bombs rained down to fetch water from a distant well and tried to comfort her children while the shelling shook the walls and ceiling. In time, the family’s food dwindled and Ms. Beley, a baker, said she fed her hungry children one bowl of porridge a day to share between them.

“It tears you apart,” said Ms. Beley. “I just sobbed, just cried, screaming into the pillow when no one could see.”

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, it laid siege to Mariupol, using the ancient warfare tactic to try to starve the once-bustling city of 430,000 people into surrender. Read more

@nytimes