Mariupol descends into despair as Putin’s siege does its grisly work

The children of medical workers warm themselves in a blanket as they wait for their relatives in a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into a narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling.

There is 18-month-old Kirill, whose shrapnel wound to the head proved too much for his little toddler’s body. There is 16-year-old Iliya, whose legs were blown up in an explosion during a football game at a school field. There is the girl no older than six who wore the pyjamas with cartoon unicorns, among the first of Mariupol’s children to die from a Russian shell.