Mariupol website tracking missing and found loved ones offers hope and a chance to remember

A website dedicated to locating missing loved ones in Mariupol has offered a renewed sense of hope in Ukraine's months-long war.

Dmitry Cherepanov, a computer programmer and native resident of Mariupol, created the website Mariupol Life after fleeing the city with his family following Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which began almost three months ago.

Even after he left, Cherepanov still wondered who was left behind.

"I am also searching for many friends with whom I've lost contact," he told CTV National News in Ukrainian.

"I'm hoping this website will help me and many others. For example, I found out that one of my friends died there."

His online bulletin board allows users to track missing people and leave messages, with thousands of people having visited the website in just over a week.

Searches for more than 1,000 people are still ongoing as of Sunday, while a roughly equal number are listed as having left the city. At least seven people on the forum are confirmed dead.

"This gives them a tool where they can post who they're looking for or who they've unfortunately lost," Cherepanov said. "Also, it can become a memory wall for those who we've lost in this horrible war."

Located on the Sea of Azov in the country's southeast, Mariupol has seen fierce fighting since the start of the war.

Ukrainian forces and civilians now remain holed up in Mariupol's Azovstal steel mill, with Russian troops having occupied the rest of city.

More than 100,000 people are still believed to be in Mariupol, down from the city's prewar population of about 430,000. Those left behind have dealt with a persistent lack of food, water and heat.

Putin has since declared victory in the city as his troops rally in the country's eastern Donbas region, where separatist forces in Donetsk and Luhansk have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the West for more weapons.

During a news conference Saturday night in a Kyiv subway station, Zelenskyy announced a planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

"You can't come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons," Zelenskyy said.

The White House had yet to comment on the visit as of midday Sunday.

With files from The Associated Press