Siege of Mariupol (2022)
Russian forces besieged the port city of Mariupol for nearly three months, bombing residential areas, a maternity hospital, and a theater used as a civilian shelter. Thousands of civilians were killed before Russian forces took the city in May.
Mariupol fell after heavy destruction; survivors were evacuated in humanitarian convoys.
The siege became a symbol of Russia's willingness to target civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities.
Zaporizhzhia, also in Ukraine's southeast, now faces the same pattern of strikes on residential districts.
