Mariupol Being “Reduced to Ashes” As the Russian Siege Continues – The situation for the people remaining in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has become dire. There is no food, water, or electricity and the Russians are intent on completely leveling the city, one building at a time.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the Ukrainian people that Mariupol is being “reduced to ashes” but that the city will survive.
Zelensky urged Ukrainians to “do everything you can to defend our country, to save our people.”
“We are seeing more and more heroes. Once ordinary Ukrainians, and now true fighters,” he added, stating that what has transpired in the strategic port city will be remembered for centuries.
President Zelensky said that the citizens of Ukraine are “rising” to the point that Russia “doesn’t believe that this is the reality,” … adding that “we will make Russia believe.”
European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called the Russian siege of Mariupol “a massive war crime.”
“What’s happening now in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody,” Borrell said at the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Journalists Being Hunted By Russian Soldiers
The Russians have been trying to control the news and narrative not only at home but in Ukraine as well. In Moscow, the Putin regime made a list of independent media members and said that they were “foreign agents”.
Inside of Mariupol, the Russians cut off the electricity, water, food supplies, and then the cell phone, radio, and television towers of the city. They claimed that the pictures of the bombing of the maternity hospital in the city were faked.
Not only did this stop the people trapped inside of the city from learning what was going on in other parts of the city and the country, but it stopped the flow of information getting out. It gives the Russians a modicum of deniability as their troops can act with impunity.
They found out the names of the journalists in the city and had a list for the soldiers to arrest them. Fearing that they’d be killed, the Ukrainian soldiers went into an area that the Russians were taking and got the last of the journalists out.
Mariupol Is The Key to the Southern Area of Ukraine
The siege of Mariupol is a strategic as well as a political objective of both Russia and Ukraine. And neither one is willing to give an inch in the battle, which has decimated the city. Analysts now estimate that 90 percent of the city has been destroyed.
The primary goal of the Russian offensive in Mariupol is to create a land bridge from Russia via the separatist-held areas in Donetsk and Lushanka to Crimea and give them nearly the entire access (about 80 percent of the coastline) to the Black Sea.
Mariupol’s port has been a major hub for the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Prior to the start of the Russian invasion, the majority of Ukraine’s steel, coal, and corn passed through the port en route to the Middle East and elsewhere.
The city is also the base of the Azov Brigade which has members of a far-right group, which, in the event of a Russian victory, would lend credence to the Russian myth that the Ukrainian operation will “de-nazi” the country.
Steve Balestrieri is a 1945 National Security Columnist. He has served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer before injuries forced his early separation. In addition to writing for 19fortyfive.com, he has covered the NFL for PatsFans.com for more than 10 years and his work was regularly featured in the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Grafton News newspapers in Massachusetts.
