Mariupol Diary: Scenes of despair, resolve in Ukraine city

With nighttime temperatures just above freezing, the city was plunged into darkness late in the week as the battle knocked out most phone services and raised the prospect of food and water shortages.

A pale, bloodied child, her pajama pants adorned cheerfully with unicorns, is rushed into a hospital, her mother wailing in terror.

New mothers nestle infants in makeshift basement bomb shelters.

A father collapses in grief over the death of his teen son when shelling ravages a soccer field near a school.

These scenes unfolded in and around the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in southern Ukraine over the past week, captured by Associated Press journalists documenting Russia's invasion.

With nighttime temperatures just above freezing, the city was plunged into darkness late in the week as the battle knocked out most phone services and raised the prospect of food and water shortages. Without phone connections, medics did not know where to take the wounded.

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Russia has made significant gains on the ground in the south in an apparent bid to cut off Ukraine's access to the sea. It also has taken the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, about 270 kilometers (168 miles) northwest of Mariupol. Capturing the city could also allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, which it seized in 2014.