New satellite imagery released by US-based space technology company Maxar Technologies shows hundreds of people lining up outside a supermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Tuesday.

The city has been under siege for weeks and is suffering from severe food and water shortages. Experts on siege warfare told the Times that starving a population is a tactic that can break the will of a besieged city.

The supermarket seen in the satellite image sits on the western edge of the city. Recent videos published by Russian state media, and verified by The New York Times, show that Russian forces have already pushed their way into the city centre, to the area around Mariupol’s Drama Theatre, which was destroyed on March 16.

Since surrounding Mariupol last month, Russian forces have destroyed the city’s power plants, cutting off electricity for residents as temperatures froze, and then the water and gas, essential for cooking and heating, according to the mayor, Vadym Boichenko.

(New York Times News Service)