At least 350,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, Ukraine 0:44
Lviv, Ukraine (CNN) --
Conditions in Mariupol are "unbearable" and "just hell," residents who fled the besieged city in southeastern Ukraine tell CNN, while shocking drone footage and satellite photos They show the total devastation caused by the Russian bombing.
The Mariupol city council declared on Tuesday that some 2,000 private cars were able to leave the city, and another 2,000 vehicles are parked on the main road out of Mariupol as of 2:00 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday.
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The departures came despite the fact that safe corridors have yet to be formally established to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, which has been under siege since March 1.
As many as 2,500 civilians have been killed in Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities estimate.
Around 350,000 people are trapped in the city, and authorities warn that those who remain have no electricity, water or heating.
Two women who managed to escape to the Zaporizhzhia region, some 140 miles away, told CNN on Monday about conditions in Mariupol and the terrifying journey out.
Lidiia, who did not give her last name for security reasons, told CNN she decided to leave Mariupol after Russian bombardment began to hit closer to home.
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"We left the city under bombardment: there is no silence in Mariupol," said the 34-year-old woman.
"Today we talked to our neighbors, they told us that the situation is now even worse, so nobody knows if people will be able to leave Mariupol today."
The woman said she had spent two weeks in a basement with 60 other people, adding that she only came out occasionally to retrieve items from her apartment.
Describing the trip out of the city, Lidiia said: "We stopped several times and hid the children because the plane was flying very low directly above us. We were afraid they would shoot at us. But it was no longer possible to stay in the city. Mariupol Now it's hell."
This satellite image shows fires burning in an industrial zone in the western sector of Mariupol on March 12.
Svitlana, who also did not give her last name for security reasons, told CNN that she let 17 people shelter in her house after their homes were destroyed, and that she cooked soup in her garden using rainwater.
"When the war started, I didn't want to leave. But when the shells started flying around 24 hours a day, it became unbearable to stay there," said the 57-year-old woman.
"My son stayed in Mariupol, I am very worried about him, but he decided to stay. I couldn't convince him to leave."
Speaking about the conditions in Mariupol, Svitlana said: "There are still a lot of people left in the city. I told my neighbors that it is possible to leave, but they are afraid that everything is mined."
He added, "Yesterday they bombed the last grocery store in town, I wonder how people will survive now."
As the city is reduced to a combat zone, a Ukrainian official on Tuesday accused Russian troops of holding people captive in the Mariupol Regional Intensive Care Hospital.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said doctors and patients were being held against their will, adding that one of the hospital employees managed to pass on information about what was happening.
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"It is impossible to leave the hospital. They are shooting hard and we are in the basement. Vehicles have not been able to access the hospital for two days. The tall buildings around us are burning... the Russians moved 400 people from the neighboring buildings to our hospital. We can't go out," Kyrylenko said on his official Telegram channel, citing a hospital employee.
Kyrylenko said the hospital was "practically destroyed" several days ago, but its staff and patients stayed in the basement, where patients continue to receive treatment.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on Monday reveal the extent of the damage inflicted on the city, including the hospital and several residential buildings.
This screenshot of drone footage shows a military vehicle firing near a building.
The hospital has a hole in its southern walls and debris can be seen scattered around it, while the residential buildings show significant damage.
Satellite photos of the Primorskyi neighbourhood, a mile south of the hospital, show houses set on fire after allegedly coming under Russian attack.
Drone footage that surfaced Monday shows a destroyed apartment building and thick plumes of smoke rising over the city's west.
The video was posted on Telegram by the Azov Battalion, an ultra-nationalist militia that has been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
CNN geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video.
Multiple official attempts to establish safe humanitarian corridors and evacuate civilians from Mariupol have failed in recent days.
A large humanitarian aid convoy due to arrive on Sunday had been unable to access the city on Monday, according to authorities.
Some have resorted to melting snow and dismantling heating systems to get clean water, Petro Andriushchenko, an aide to the city's mayor, said on Ukrainian television on Monday.
"Most of the people are staying in basements and shelters in inhumane conditions. No food, no water, no electricity, no heating," Andriushchenko said.
Smoke rises from damaged residential buildings.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Monday that the bombing of Mariupol had killed more than 2,500 people.
CNN cannot independently verify these figures.
Also on Monday, Zelensky accused Russia of committing war crimes in its attacks on the city and other parts of the country.
"Responsibility for war crimes by the Russian military is unavoidable. Responsibility for a deliberate humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities is unavoidable," he said.
"The whole world sees what is happening in Mariupol."
-- Jack Guy wrote from London. Ivana Kottasová reported from Lviv.
Tim Lister, Olga Voitovich, Tamara Qiblawi, and Yulia Kesaieva contributed reporting.
war in ukraine