Eking out an existence and mourning the dead in besieged Mariupol

Local residents are seen outside an apartment building damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 30, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - 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.