20 Days in Mariupol

>> Someone once told me, “Wars don't start with explosions they start with silence.” >>NARRATOR: From FRONTLINE and The Associated Press a special presentation of the critically acclaimed feature film on the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

>> The war has begun and we have to tell its story... >> If the world saw everything that happened in Mariupol, it would give at least some meaning to this horror.

>> NARRATOR: Now, 20 Days in Mariupol.

(quiet clattering) (indistinct chatter) >> (speaking Russian): >> (on radio): >> (speaking Russian): >> MSTYSLAV CHERNOV (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This is the first time I saw "Z," the Russian sign of war.

The hospital is surrounded.

Dozens of doctors, hundreds of patients, and us.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I have no illusions about what will happen to us if we are caught.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (speaking Russian): ♪ ♪ (rain pouring, windshield wipers flapping) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): February 24, 2022.

The city looks normal.

Someone once told me, "Wars don't start with explosions.

They start with silence."

When we realized that the invasion was imminent, our team decided to go to Mariupol.

We were sure it would be one of the main targets.

But we could never imagine the scale and that the whole country would be under attack.

(air raid siren wailing) >> (speaking Russian): ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): An hour after we arrive, the first bombs hit in the outskirts of the city.

A military base with anti-aircraft systems.

Russians are clearing the path for warplanes.

Huge port, industrial city, a bridge to Crimea.

We were here eight years ago when Russia tried to take it.

And, without a doubt, they will try again.

We drive to the Left Bank, the part of the city closest to Russia.

(vehicle door slams) >> (speaking Russian, crying): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This is the first person I speak to today.

>> (crying) >> CHERNOV (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I don't know if I should keep filming or try to calm her down.

(speaking Russian): >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> Oi.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian): (people shouting) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I was wrong.

An hour later, shells do hit this neighborhood.

(dog barking) >> (speaking Russian) >> (speaking Russian): >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: (people talking in background) >> (speaking Ukrainian): >> BOY (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): There are no directives to evacuate the city, but some people are leaving anyway.

>> (crying, speaking Russian): Oi.

(shouts): >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I understand their anger.

Their country is being attacked.

It's our country, too, and we have to tell its story.

(air raid siren wailing) There are almost no real bomb shelters in the city, so people hide in the basements of their apartment buildings.

(baby moans) Suddenly, the lights go out.

(people talking in background) (baby fussing) (baby cries) >> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> WOMAN: (people talking in background) >> CHERNOV: (woman speaking Russian) >> GIRL: (voice breaking): (woman speaking softly in background) >> GIRL (crying): (sniffles) ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We send videos and photos to our editors.

The war has begun.

>> Ukraine is now a nation at war.

190,000 Russian troops and their proxies coming from Ukraine's northern, eastern, and southern borders, Russia is moving fast.

>> After Putin stopped speaking, on cue, the missiles and air strikes began.

>> Air raid sirens sounded on and off.

Kharkiv in the east and Mariupol in the south both came under heavy fire.

>> There's real anger in the air.

The hatred for Vladimir Putin is, is palpable.

(woman speaking Ukrainian over loudspeaker) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): February 26.

This is emergency broadcast system.

Russians are starting to surround the city, taking towns and blocking the roads on the outskirts.

A quarter of the residents have left.

But most decided to stay.

This is Terrasport fitness center.

Now it's one of the biggest improvised shelters in the city.

(people talking in background) People put tape on the mirrors so fewer fragments are created when bombs fall.

(people talking in background) >> (speaking Russian): (voice trembling): ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This woman, she's the one I told to stay home on the first day.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I apologize.

I'm glad she is okay.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> CHILD: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): As I look at all these children, I think about my daughters.

They also have to leave their home because of this war.

News comes from all over Ukraine, and I cannot get over the feeling that something terrible is going to happen to this city.

♪ ♪ >> Missiles fired at civilian locations, according to the Ukrainians, even though the Russians say they are not targeting civilians.

>> Their worst nightmare coming true, thousands of citizens are trying to flee the country.

And those who are left behind have filled bomb shelters amid fears of rocket attacks overnight.

>> Ukrainian soldiers like these have put up a stout defense of Mariupol because, as a large port, it's economically vital, and as a major city just 30 miles from Russia, it's strategic.

For both sides in this war, it is quite a prize.

>> CHERNOV (voiceover): February 27.

Soldiers are patrolling around Emergency Hospital Number Two, a couple of kilometers from the front line on the edge of the city.

So far, Russians have not been able to break through.

>> (shouting in Russian): (men shouting) (shouting continues) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): For the first time in Mariupol, I hear a sound of a fighter jet.

(men talking softly) >> (speaking Russian): >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The soldiers are tense and don't want to be filmed.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: (ambulance siren wailing) (voiceover): We're interrupted by an ambulance siren.

(people talking in background) (woman calling) >> (speaking Russian): (woman crying, people talking in background) (people talking in background) >> WOMAN: (sobbing) >> MAN: >> MAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN (sobbing): >> MAN: >> (speaking Russian) (talking in background) >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: (defibrillator powering up) >> MAN: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Evangelina, four years old.

>> U.S. officials warn that Russian forces are turning to their old and brutal tactics of laying siege to cities while targeting civilians and infrastructure from afar.

>> ...these punishing artillery and air strikes.

Heavy losses, as indiscriminate shelling rained down on apartment buildings, the university in flames.

>> "Show this to Putin," a doctor said to an A.P.

reporter.

The doctor wanted Vladimir Putin to see, quote, "the eyes of this child and crying doctors."

>> Anyone wanting to leave Mariupol probably has to hit the road by tomorrow, after which the last route out is expected to close.

(people talking softly) >> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 2.

Russian strikes are causing problems with internet and electricity.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): All the international journalists we met in Mariupol have left.

But we decide to stick with the medics for a few days.

We drive to the Left Bank, where the heaviest fighting is happening.

>> (murmurs) >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This woman was standing on her balcony when the shell hit the house on the opposite side of the street.

>> (speaking Russian) (siren wailing) >> CHERNOV: But shells don't just hit the Left Bank.

These days, attacks happen all across the city.

(speaking Russian): >> MAN: (ambulance jostling and shaking) (ambulance bounces loudly) >> CHERNOV: >> Mm?

>> CHERNOV (starts again): >> MAN: ♪ ♪ (people talking in background) >> MAN: (speaking indistinctly) >> (moans) >> MAN: (staff talking in background) (woman gasping, shouting) >> MAN: >> AMBULANCE CREW: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN 1: >> MAN 2: >> (speaking Russian) (shouts) (people talking in background) >> (giving instructions) >> (sobbing) >> (soothing) >> FATHER: (sobbing) >> MAN: >> FATHER: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The boy was playing soccer with his friends when shelling started.

His legs were completely blown off.

>> (talking softly in background) >> FATHER (sobbing): (sobbing) (wailing) (sobbing and wailing continue) ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Ilya.

16 years old.

(explosions pounding in distance) The front line is closing in.

We've sent all the photos and videos.

Note to editors: graphic content.

This is painful.

This is painful to watch.

But it must be painful to watch.

>> In the port city of Mariupol, local officials say hundreds of casualties are now feared.

>> A father lost in grief over the body of his 16-year-old son Ilya.

>> The electricity's gone.

The internet's gone.

The Russians are coming.

Mariupol awaits its fate.

(explosions pound in distance) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 3.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The shelling has reached the neighborhood around the hospital.

(explosions echoing) >> MAN: >> WOMAN: (woman murmuring) >> WOMAN: >> (talking quietly) >> (breathes deeply) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Patients are moved away from the windows, and day after day, the conditions in the hospital get worse.

>> (speaking Russian) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This is one of the boys who was hit while playing soccer.

>> (speaking Russian) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Doctors smile at him, but I hear a whisper that his leg may need to be amputated.

There are almost no antibiotics left to stop the sepsis.

(man shouts, doctor shushes) >> MAN (speaking Russian): >> DOCTOR: >> MAN: >> DOCTOR: (people talking in background) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The internet and phones have stopped working, and I'm sending short dispatches to our editors over the satellite phone.

The morgue is full, so doctors store bodies in utility rooms.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): (people talking in background, laughing softly) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We stay and sleep in the hospital.

So far, it seems to be the safest place.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian, laughing): >> MAN: >> WOMAN 2: >> WOMAN 1: >> WOMAN 2: >> MAN 2: (explosions echoing in distance) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): From our observation point on the seventh floor of the hospital, I see the battle on the front line continues.

Russians are still trying to break into the city.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian): (man speaking Russian) WOMAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Kyryl, 18 months old.

>> WOMAN: (people talking in background) (defibrillator beeping) >> WOMAN: >> WOMAN 2: (defibrillator powering down) >> WOMAN: >> (weeping) (wailing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): All night, we sit on the seventh floor of the hospital, hoping to catch a connection, to find a way to get these images out.

Nothing works.

I think about all this country has been through over the past eight years, all that I've filmed.

Revolution of Dignity.

Crimea's annexation.

Russia's invasion of Donbas.

MH17.

Donetsk airport siege.

War that seems endless.

Thousands have died.

We keep filming, and things stay the same.

Worse, even.

Propaganda turns everything upside down.

I think about my daughters.

They were born into a world at war.

I wish I could see them now.

(explosions pounding in distance) But all I have is a satellite phone to make short calls to editors.

We tell them, "Mariupol is under siege.

"Russians are killing civilians.

"We are holding up.

Tell our families we love them."

♪ ♪ >> Evacuations of two besieged cities in Ukraine are being delayed amid reports that Russia is violating a temporary cease-fire.

>> City is surrounded by Russian troops, and there is no way out, even for any humanitarian help.

>> The situation is really dire in Mariupol.

A corridor was planned to evacuate people from there, and we've heard that it has not happened, that Russian forces have continued to shell the city.

That's what the mayor has said.

Um, we have no real-time information of what's going on in the city.

>> (speaking Russian on radio) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This is the only radio signal you can catch in Mariupol now.

Over the next weeks, Russia will bomb buildings, cut electricity, water, supplies, and finally, crucially, the cell phone, radio, television towers.

We have to get out of the hospital to try to find a connection, to see what's happening to the city.

(explosions pounding) (car alarms blaring) >> (speaking Russian): (explosions continue) >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 4.

A mall near the hospital was destroyed.

>> MAN: >> MAN 2: >> MAN 1: >> MAN 2: (car alarms blaring, explosions pound in distance) >> CHERNOV: >> BOY: >> MAN: >> BOY: >> MAN: >> BOY: >> MAN: >> BOY: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): As we search for a connection, we go neighborhood to neighborhood.

Houses we saw standing days ago are destroyed.

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian, crying): (sobbing) >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: (sobbing): Oi.

>> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We follow the smoke.

Houses hit by shells burn.

A humanitarian corridor was opened on March 5.

Vehicles fled the city, only to be blocked by Russian forces.

Then the road was closed.

>> MAN: >> MAN 2: >> MAN 1: >> MAN 3: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: (sign translation): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Red Cross, police, Ukrainian soldiers try to help and calm people down.

>> (speaking Russian): >> MAN: >> OFFICER: (people murmuring) >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: ♪ ♪ >> (speaking Russian in background) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The more people realize that they are trapped, the more desperate they grow.

>> (talking in background) ♪ ♪ (broken glass clinking) >> NATASHA (speaking Russian, crying): (sobbing) >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> NATASHA: >> WOMAN: >> NATASHA: (sobbing) >> WOMAN: >> NATASHA: >> MAN: >> NATASHA: >> WOMAN: >> NATASHA: >> SOLDIER: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: (people talking in background) >> SOLDIER: (dog barking in distance) >> MAN: >> SOLDIER: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The city changed so much so quickly.

When we were in the hospital, one of the doctors told me, "War is like an X-ray.

All human insides become visible."

>> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): "Good people become better, bad people worse."

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> (laughs) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): But I thought, "It's not only the bombs, lack of food, water.

"It's isolation, the inability to contact relatives, to find out what's happening in other cities."

People charge cell phones from a generator just to use them as flashlights.

Cut off.

We feel the same.

We still cannot send our images.

(people talking in background) >> (singing) (people talking in background, song continues) (children playing, woman vocalizing) >> (talking in background) >> (crying) >> MAN: >> WOMAN: (sniffling) (crying) >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: (sniffles) >> WOMAN: >> (sniffles) >> WOMAN: (baby fussing) (woman shushing) (shells firing) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): That night, as we watch artillery shooting, our phones suddenly pick up connection.

I split the footage into ten-second clips, set three phones on the windowsill, and send.

>> Bombs continued to rain down on the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was fully surrounded by Russian troops.

>> (speaking Russian) >> The Russians say they aren't targeting civilians.

This is 18-month-old Kyryl.

>> Medics try to save the boy.

They cannot.

>> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 9.

Like a disease, war is taking over the city.

(people talking in background) We are back at the Emergency Hospital Number Two.

The few city workers that are still on duty collect bodies to be buried.

I recognize this sheet.

It's Ilya, the boy who was killed playing soccer.

♪ ♪ (speaking Russian): >> MAN: (exhales) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Somewhere among these black bags lie the other children we filmed.

>> (talking in background) ♪ ♪ (talking in background) >> CHERNOV: >> (panting) >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Another truck arrives.

Bodies from the streets.

(explosions echoing in distance) My brain will desperately want to forget all this.

But the camera will not let it happen.

(explosion roaring) (glass falling) (car alarms blaring) The shock wave.

Ears and skin feel the change of pressure.

(alarms continue, people talking in background) We hide in the entryway of a building and wait for another strike, praying it will not hit us.

(explosions pounding, car alarms blaring) (alarms continue) >> (speaking Russian): (alarms continue) >> MAN: (knock at door) (alarms continue) >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: (voiceover): We go to the top of the building and see the smoke just a few blocks away.

It's a hospital.

>> DOCTOR (speaking Russian): >> MAN (in distance): >> DOCTOR: (people shouting and screaming) >> (sobbing) >> SOLDIER: >> WOMAN: >> (sobbing and wailing) (people talking in background) >> WOMAN: >> WOMAN: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> WOMAN: (people talking, moaning in background) >> BOY (crying): >> SOLDIER: >> BOY: >> SOLDIER: >> BOY: >> SOLDIER: >> BOY: >> MAN: >> BOY: >> MAN: >> OFFICER: (people talking in background) ♪ ♪ (men calling in distance) >> OFFICER: ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I try to find out how many dead and wounded there are.

But in this chaos, nobody can answer.

(people talking in background) >> MAN (speaking Russian): (people talking in background) >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> OFFICER: >> WOMAN: >> SOLDIER: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The name of the police officer speaking to us is Vladimir.

He wants to make a statement.

>> VLADIMIR (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV: >> VLADIMIR: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): And then he asks once more.

(explosions pound in distance) >> Russian troops commit war crimes.

Our family, our womens, our children need helps.

Our people needs help from international society.

Please help Mariupol.

>> CHERNOV (voiceover): Vladimir showed us the only place in the city where we could catch a signal and send the images.

>> VLADIMIR (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Outside a looted grocery store on Budivel'nykiv Avenue.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> VLADIMIR: (explosions roaring in distance) (debris clattering underfoot) (speaking Russian) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Air strikes are happening constantly.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> MAN: >> VLADIMIR: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Vladimir said the footage from the maternity hospital will change the course of the war.

But we have seen so many dead people.

Dead children.

How could more death change anything?

♪ ♪ >> Air strikes on the southern city of Mariupol destroyed a children's and maternity hospital.

>> For once, the aftermath of a bombing, here at the city's maternity hospital, was filmed for the world to see.

>> Horror and devastation.

>> This is clearly the, the worst and most egregious attack we have seen in this war so far.

>> ...mundial por el bombardeo ruso a un hospital pediátrico en Mariúpol.

>> (speaking Japanese) >> The Associated Press also reports that city workers have had to create a mass grave to bury the dead.

>> And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling this attack a war crime.

>> (speaking Ukrainian): (guns firing in distance) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 10.

(explosion roars loudly) (car alarms blaring, echo resounding) The city is still being bombed.

(guns firing in distance) And now I can also hear heavy machine guns.

That means Russians have entered the city.

(guns firing, explosions pounding in distance) (closer explosions pounding) (car alarm blaring in distance) Vladimir, the officer we met yesterday, is with us.

>> MAN (speaking Russian on radio): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The last functioning fire department in the city destroyed by another air strike.

>> (talking softly) ♪ ♪ (explosion pounds in distance) ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I don't know if he survived.

We try not to stay long in one place.

The biggest university in the city was destroyed, too.

♪ ♪ >> MAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): New wounds every day.

(debris crunching underfoot) (speaking Russian): >> MAN: (sniffs) >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: (mutters) >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: (metal clattering) >> (talking softly in background) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We drive back to catch a signal at the spot on Budivel'nykiv Avenue.

It's still the only place where you can get internet.

(cell phone chimes) It's past curfew, so Vladimir accompanies us.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We check the news and speak to editors.

(in footage): Sorry, what?

Hold on, hold on.

(explosion echoing) It's coming back-- hold on.

>> (speaking Russian in background) >> CHERNOV: Hold on, hold on, hold on.

This mother(bleep) is flying around.

Hold on-- I can hear him.

I, I don't think there has been a moment today when there was not, not an airplane in the air.

And, uh, the prognosis is very pessimistic.

I think they're take the Left Bank already.

(voiceover): I give them the latest.

But there are disturbing updates for us.

(in footage): Okay.

>> (playing on phone): These women's stories have epitomized the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine.

And yet, even their suffering has been questioned, with Russian officials claiming on Twitter and in news programs that they must be actors.

>> (speaking Russian) >> (translated): This maternity hospital had already been seized by the Azov Battalion and other radicals.

All the pregnant women, all the nurses, all the service personnel were already expelled from there.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (translated): This is information terrorism.

>> CHERNOV (voiceover): We hoped that the pregnant woman on the stretcher survived.

So we went to search for her and other victims at the Emergency Hospital Number Two.

Soldiers are guarding the entrance.

(people talking in background) Vladimir says this is the red zone now.

The Russians have entered the neighborhood.

(gunfire echoing) So he comes with us.

(gunfire echoing) Floor by floor, we search for the pregnant women.

There is no maternity ward, so we try the surgery department.

(people talking in background) >> (yelping) (moaning) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Surgeons are overwhelmed and low on painkillers.

(woman groans loudly, medical staff talking) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): This piece of shrapnel was taken from a patient.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Finally, we find one of the doctors who treated the woman on the stretcher.

(speaking Russian): >> DOCTOR: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Her name was Iryna.

They said she screamed, "Kill me," when they brought her.

She knew her child was dead.

Other survivors are here.

One of them has just given birth.

Another is taken to an operating room.

She lost part of her foot in the bombing and doctors worry about the child.

>> DOCTOR (speaking Russian): (machines beeping) (speaking Russian) (encouraging in Russian) (baby crying, doctors and nurses cheer) >> (crying) >> DOCTOR: (machine beeping) >> DOCTOR: >> DOCTOR 2: (baby giggles) >> DOCTOR 1: >> DOCTOR 2: (explosion pounds in distance) (closer explosion pounds) >> WOMAN: >> MAN: (closer explosion roars) (people talking in background) >> WOMAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We have to leave.

But the corridors are filled with people who lost homes, relatives.

>> (sniffling) (speaking Russian, crying): (sobbing, panting) (crying) ♪ ♪ (footsteps approaching) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We head to the exit, but it's too late.

Soldiers say a sniper just shot and injured a nurse in front of the hospital.

>> (speaking Russian): >> MAN: >> (on radio): >> MAN: (people talking in background) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Two soldiers are still trapped.

>> (calling): >> SOLDIER: >> (calling): >> SOLDIER: >> VLADIMIR: >> SOLDIER: (gun firing) >> MAN: (guns firing) (man calls) >> MAN: >> MAN: >> MAN 2: >> SOLDIER: >> MAN 2: >> (laughs): ♪ ♪ >> MAN: >> (coughs) >> MAN: >> (speaking Russian on radio) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We hear a low rumble.

(vehicle moving in distance) >> (speaking Russian on radio): >> VLADIMIR: >> SOLDIER: >> MAN: >> MAN 2: >> SOLDIER: >> (on radio): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): So we run to the seventh floor, to our observation point.

It's risky.

They can open fire at the upper floors of the hospital.

But from here, we can see more.

>> (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (in footage): (explosions echoing) (explosion pounds) >> VLADIMIR: (automatic gunfire echoes) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): They are coming closer.

If reinforcements don't arrive, the soldiers downstairs will not be able to stop them.

They will take over the hospital.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV: >> VLADIMIR: >> MAN: >> MAN 2: >> MAN 3: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> CHERNOV (voiceover): What should we do?

We need to send all this footage: survivors from the maternity bombing; tanks shooting at residential areas.

There is no connection here, and we can't get to our car.

And if we get caught, Vladimir says, "Russians will make you say everything you published was a lie."

The night is sleepless.

Feverish thoughts of past, present, and future race through my mind.

I want all of this to stop, but I have no power over it.

My memory keeps carrying me back home and back to war.

♪ ♪ If someday my daughters ask me, "What did you do to stop this madness, this sadistic virus of destruction?"...

...I want to be able to give them an answer.

(people walking quickly) (breath trembling) This is a special military task force.

All night, we hid inside the hospital, and Vladimir used the last of his radio's battery to contact them.

This morning, they broke into the surgery department to rescue us.

They said we were already behind enemy lines.

(breathing heavily in footage) (men shouting, running) (explosion echoing) (explosion echoing) (voiceover): We are still wearing the scrubs the doctors gave us, in case Russians entered the hospital that night.

>> (calls out) (hinges squeak) >> (breathing heavily) (explosion echoing) >> (speaking Russian): (explosion echoing) >> SOLDIER: (explosion echoing) >> (panting) (explosion echoing) >> SOLDIER: (explosion echoing) (debris crunching underfoot) >> (speaking Russian) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We run, abandoning the doctors who have sheltered us, pregnant women who had been shelled, the people who live in hospital corridors because they have nowhere else to go.

>> SOLDIER: (explosion echoes in distance) >> SOLDIER: (jet streaking) >> (calls out in Russian) (explosion pounds) ♪ ♪ >> CHERNOV (voiceover): The Russians took over the hospital a few hours after we escaped.

They've taken the Left Bank, except the Azovstal steel factory.

And they are closing in on the city center.

Ukrainian forces fight back, but they are outnumbered.

The city is slowly dying, like a human being.

On the day we escaped from the hospital, the military task force moved us and Vladimir to an area still under Ukrainian control.

And for days, we tried to find a way to get out of the city with all the footage.

(people shouting, child screaming) >> CHILD (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV (voiceover): March 13.

Shelling of residential areas continues.

(people talking in background) >> (crying) (screams): >> MAN: >> MAN 2: (people talking in background) >> (sobbing) >> (murmuring and whimpering) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): Without any information, people don't know who to blame.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN: >> WOMAN 2: >> CHERNOV: >> WOMAN 1: >> WOMAN 3: >> CHERNOV: >> MAN: >> WOMAN: (debris clattering) >> CHERNOV: (voiceover): Vladimir keeps insisting we need to find a way to leave.

But we no longer have our van.

It was left behind in the hospital.

And anyone who drives us with our cameras and hard drives through miles of occupied territory would be taking a risk.

On March 15, our editors send us a message: "Yesterday, some people were able to leave "with a Red Cross convoy, and there is another one leaving today."

We go to the last functioning hospital in the city.

(clears throat in footage) The Red Cross convoy has left.

(guns firing, explosions pounding in distance) >> (groaning in pain) >> OFFICER (speaking Russian): >> MAN: >> MEDIC: >> WOMAN: >> (screams) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): I wish I could do more.

Stay longer.

But we need to leave.

One of the doctors tells us to follow him to the basement.

>> DOCTOR: (sighs) (explosion pounds in distance) (speaks Russian) (debris crunches underfoot) (people talking in background) >> CHERNOV (voiceover): We need to catch up with the convoy.

Vladimir says he can try to take us with his car.

I tell him it's dangerous.

But he wants to help to get us and our materials out.

And he still hopes, if the world saw everything that happened in Mariupol, it would give at least some meaning to this horror.

(car horns honking) Vladimir's car was damaged by shelling, but, miraculously, still runs.

We are with his family.

We make it through 100 kilometers of occupied territory and 15 Russian checkpoints, cameras and hard drives hidden under seats.

By dawn, we finally catch up with the Red Cross convoy.

(brake engages) (people talking in background) Yesterday, I told one of the officers who extracted us from the hospital, "Thank you for saving us."

He said, "Thank you for telling the story of this city."

And yet, as we drive away, I keep thinking about all the people whose tragedies will remain unknown.

I will see my daughters.

And I can only hope that these people survive and will be with their families, too.

♪ ♪ >> The total number of refugees who have fled Ukraine so far is now nearing three million.

>> And Russians continue to strangle and starve Mariupol.

>> Got some new video this morning of 2,000 cars that officials say managed to make it out of Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor that Russia did not renege on.

>> Devastating images are now emerging from Mariupol, where the mayor says the death toll could be as high as 20,000 since the war began.

>> (speaking non-English language) >> (speaking German) >> Leaving people without supply lines for food or water, without internet connection to the outside world.

>> It was a tragedy.

This woman and her unborn child later died.

>> And we know about the atrocities that have been happening inside Mariupol because of journalists from the Associated Press.

The only international reporters to remain after the Russian bombardment bore witness to what have become indelible images of the war.

>> A.P.

reporters on the ground showed the world a mass grave in Mariupol.

>> I'm talking about narrow trenches in Mariupol with babies' bodies in them.

A.P., A.P.

journalists have, have been there.

>> I've seen so many fakes.

Who wins the, the information war, the one who wins the war.

>> Do you really, truly believe this?

Do you truly believe what you're saying?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline for a Q&A on the making of this film with director Mstyslav Chernow >> Vladimir showed us the only place in the city where we could catch a signal and send the images.

>> And check out all our reporting on the war in Ukraine.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, and stream anytime on the PBS App, YouTube or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org.

>> For more on this and other Frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ Frontline's " 20 Days in Mariupol" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪