Eking out an existence and mourning the dead in besieged Mariupol

The port city has become a mass grave as residents bury their neighbours and family members near the apartment buildings where they used to live.

A man walks with his dog near an apartment building damaged by shelling from fighting on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov

Amid the burnt-out frames of shelled buildings and bare branches of trees, only a children's playground set, now abandoned, lends colour to this neighbourhood in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

The port city, which had a prewar population of more than 400,000, has been a strategic focus of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began five weeks ago and has suffered near-constant bombardment.