Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed the “release” of Mariupol City which was flat after almost two months of fighting, demanding that the Ukrainian defenders trapped were sealed into their last seat.
The fate of the surrounded port has become totemic because of the Russian battle to complement the land bridge covering the Ukrainian region already under control, including Crimea – which will seize the country of the heart of the industry and most of the coastline.
President Joe Biden, however, said Putin was destined to fail in Ukraine, because he announced $ 800 million (740 million euros) in additional US military assistance including howitzer and tactical drones.
“Our unity is at home with our allies and partners, and our unity with Ukrainians, send messages that are not wrong for Putin – he will never succeed in dominating and occupy all Ukrainians,” he said.
Ukraine appealed to a humanitarian corridor immediately to allow civilians and wounded fighters to be evacuated from a wide Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
“They hardly have food, water, important medicines,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ukraine.
Three school buses filled with Evakary Mariupol, including women and children arrived in the city of Zaporizhzhia after crossing the area held by Russian forces.
Evacuee Valentina who was exhausted, 73, told AFP he desperately needed medicine for him back when he gripped the electric pole with a hand-covered hand to stop himself from falling.
“My apartment has been destroyed like my child’s home,” he said, still wearing his sandals along with a torn black coat.
“From the first day we were in the basement. It was cold. We prayed to God. I asked him to protect us.”
Trapped civilians
The flow of Western military assistance has helped force Russia to deflect its attacks to East Ukraine and accumulate awesome pressure on places such as Mariupol on the waterfront Azov.
“Mariupol has been released,” Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin during a televised meeting. “The remaining nationalist formation takes refuge in the Azovstal plant industrial zone.”
Shoigu said about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained on the site, where the last bag of resistance had sheltered on the tunnel network.
Up to 2,000 civilians also experience terrible conditions when they seek protection in plants, according to the Ukrainian authority.
Putin said the “Liberation” Mariupol was “success” for Russian troops but ordered Shoigu to call planned pedestrians planned, rejecting it as “impractical”.
“No need to rise to this catacomb and crawl underground through this industrial facilities. Blocks from this industrial area so that not even flies can escape,” Putin said.
Olexiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Russia actually admitted defeat at Mariupol and divert troops to the north.
The aim is to strengthen the fight for all Lugansk and Donetsk, two regions of Ukraine are controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
“They won’t work,” Arestovych warned.
The West held another support for Zelensky with a visit to Kyiv by the Spanish Prime Minister and Denmark, both of which promised military assistance.
Pile of body
Germany, under fire because it did not give more to the Zelensky government, said it had approved Eastern European partners to indirectly supply Ukraine with heavy weapons.
“It’s about tanks, armored vehicles, or other choices of each country that can be given,” Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said, explaining that Germany would recharge these countries.
Shipping will occur “in the next few days”, he said, because “military experts agreed that the next two weeks would determine the Ukrainian struggle against Russia”.