Ukrainian fighters hold on as Putin proclaims victory in Mariupol

kyiv, April 22 (Reuters) – Ukrainian fighters clung to their last holdout in Mariupol on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the war’s biggest battle, declaring the port city was ” liberated” after weeks of relentless bombardment.

However, the United States disputed Putin’s claim, saying it believed Ukrainian forces were still holding their ground in the city. Putin ordered his troops to blockade a giant steel plant where Ukrainians are holding out, after rejecting an ultimatum to surrender or die.

Ukraine said Putin wanted to avoid a final showdown with his forces in Mariupol as he lacked the troops to defeat them. But Ukrainian officials have also asked for help in evacuating wounded civilians and soldiers.

In a televised meeting in the Kremlin, Putin congratulated his defense minister and Russian troops for the “combat effort to liberate Mariupol” and said it was unnecessary to storm the industrial zone containing the Azovstal steel plant.

“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities… Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can get through,” Putin said.

Mariupol, a major port in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, sits between areas controlled by Russian separatists and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow seized in 2014. Capturing the city would allow Russia to unite the two areas. . read more

Even as Putin claims his first grand prize since his forces were driven from the capital kyiv and northern Ukraine last month, he falls short of the unequivocal victory Moscow has sought after months of fighting in a city reduced to rubble.

In a late-night speech, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was doing everything “to talk about at least some victories,” including mobilizing new battalion tactical groups.

“They can only postpone the inevitable: the moment when the invaders will have to leave our territory, including from Mariupol, a city that continues to resist Russia regardless of what the occupiers say,” Zelenskiy said.

Russia stepped up its attacks in eastern Ukraine this week and carried out long-distance strikes on other targets, including kyiv and the western city of Lviv.

In an update early Friday, Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces had increased attacks along the entire front line in the east and were trying to mount an offensive in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

Russia calls its invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine. kyiv and its Western allies reject it as a false pretext for a war that has killed thousands and uprooted a quarter of Ukraine’s population.

The United States on Thursday authorized another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, including heavy artillery and recently revealed “Ghost” drones that are destroyed after striking their targets. read more

“We are in a critical window now where they are going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” US President Joe Biden said.

When asked about Putin’s victory declaration in Mariupol, State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was “further disinformation from his hackneyed playbook.”

Mariupol, once home to 400,000 people, has seen not only the most intense battle of the war that began when Russian forces invaded on February 24, but also its worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Ukraine estimates that tens of thousands of civilians have been killed there. The United Nations and the Red Cross say the number of civilian casualties is at least in the thousands.

Journalists who arrived in Mariupol during the siege found streets littered with corpses, almost all buildings destroyed, and residents huddled in cellars, venturing to cook leftovers or bury bodies in gardens.

The Ukrainian fighters remain inside the Azovstal steel complex, one of the largest metallurgical facilities in Europe, which covers 11 square kilometers with huge buildings, underground bunkers and tunnels.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko told Reuters that only Putin could decide the fate of the 100,000 civilians trapped in the city.

“The lives that are still there are in the hands of one person: Vladimir Putin. And all the deaths that will happen after now will also be in his hands,” Boichenko said in an interview. read more

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers needed to be removed from the plant immediately, blaming Russian forces for failing to establish a safe corridor that she said had been agreed upon.

Russia says it has taken in 140,000 civilians from Mariupol in humanitarian evacuations. Ukraine says some were forcibly deported, in what would constitute a war crime.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a four-day humanitarian pause in fighting during the Orthodox Easter period. Both Ukrainians and Russians are predominantly Orthodox Christians and celebrate Easter Sunday on April 24.

A Ukrainian religious association also proposed an Easter truce, and the head of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church urged Ukrainians to forgo overnight Easter services, fearing Russian bombing. read more

But Zelenskiy said that Russia had rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce. There was no immediate Russian comment.

Information from Reuters journalists; Written by Rami Ayyub and Stephen Coates; Edited by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill

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