The horrors of a city under siege with fiery death raining down from the sky have been recounted by the last journalists to leave Mariupol.

Associated Press (AP) video journalist Mstyslav Chernov spent weeks dodging shells and explosions along with his photographer colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, as they relentlessly documented what was happening inside the besieged port city in southeast Ukraine.

On 9 March, they witnessed the heartbreaking sight of smoke rising from Mariupol’s bombed maternity hospital as emergency services pulled bloodied pregnant women from the ruins.

“This will change the course of the war,” a police officer told them.

The attack on the maternity hospital has been branded a war crime by the UK, and the images and reports of the destruction have sparked international condemnation.

Ukraine has refused to give up Mariupol, with the country’s deputy prime minister and an adviser to the city’s mayor both saying there would be “no talk of any surrender” or the “laying down of arms”.

Ukraine war latest – eight dead as shopping centre and homes bombed in Kyiv

Ukraine war: Why the EU is nervous about imposing a ban on Russian oil and gas

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher: Ukraine president Zelenskyy holds video call to thank Hollywood couple for $35 million fundraising effort

Boris Johnson to hold summit with nuclear industry bosses to curb Russian oil and gas imports

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

In a dramatic account of his time reporting from inside the siege, Mr Chernov said: “We watched smoke rise from a maternity hospital.

“When we arrived, emergency workers were still pulling bloodied pregnant women from the ruins.”

When the police officer urged them to tell the world about what happened at the hospital, the AP journalist was unsure what the impact would be.

“We had recorded so many dead people and dead children, an endless line,” he said. “I didn’t understand why he thought still more deaths could change anything.

“I was wrong.”

Key developments:

• The Kremlin says there needs to be significant progress on peace talks for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy face-to-face – as negotiators held a 90-minute video call
• US President Joe Biden will travel to Poland this week to discuss “humanitarian and human rights crisis”, the White House says
• Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency says the radiation monitors around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst meltdown in 1986, have stopped working
• An ammonia leak at a chemical plant on the outskirts of the eastern city of Sumy, which spread about 1.5 miles (2.5km) in all directions, is now contained, say emergency officials – but the cause is still unknown

‘The Russians were hunting us down’

​​​In the lengthy AP piece, relayed to colleagues in Paris, the journalists recall seeking out patchy internet connections to share their stories with the world, all the while just seconds away from possible death by shelling.

But they knew that artillery fire was not the only thing endangering them, Mr Chernov says.

“The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.”

As they reported from inside a hospital, a group of soldiers burst in at dawn, asking for the journalists.

“I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise.

“I stepped forward to identify myself. ‘We’re here to get you out,’ they said.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

A police officer urged them to leave, afraid that if captured by Russian forces they would be forced to go on camera to say that everything they filmed was a lie, Mr Chernov said.

There followed a nerve-wracking escape from the city, through over a dozen Russian checkpoints, until finally they reached Ukrainian lines.

“We were the last journalists in Mariupol. Now there are none.”

Related posts:

Portugal and Mauritius removed from England’s ‘travel ban’ red list France to return Klimt masterpiece sold under duress during Nazi era to rightful Jewish heirs WHO reassures Europe over Oxford jab as experts look into blood clot claims Israeli archaeologists discover dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments in desert cave In the nation where COVID first gripped Europe, fans are optimistic of a safe and successful Euros Growing calls to scrap foreign aid cuts as philanthropists step in to replace shortfall Looting and anarchy sparked by Zuma arrest ‘may lead to food shortages’ in South Africa At least three dead and five missing as buildings collapse in Sicily gas explosion Far-right French presidential candidate convicted over migrant children comments Palestinian residents facing eviction from disputed property climb on to roof and threaten to set gas canisters on fire Distress signal detected on isolated Tonga islands that are home to 105 people Satellite images show Tonga covered in ash after volcanoc eruption