According to reports from Russian news agencies, pro-Russian separatists have seized the port of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which has been disputed for weeks. “The port of Mariupol is under our control,” the RIA Novosti news agency said, citing Donetsk separatist leader Denis Puschilin on Monday. In the morning, the remaining Ukrainian troops in Mariupol said they were preparing for their “final battle” because ammunition was running low.
Ukrainian soldiers were “pushed back” and “surrounded” by the Russian army, the Mariupol brigade said earlier. “All the infantrymen were killed and the firefights are now taking hold of the gunners, anti-aircraft gunners, radio operators, drivers and cooks. Even the orchestra.” Half of the remaining soldiers were wounded. “No one wants to communicate with us anymore because we have been discarded,” the soldiers said. The achievement will mean “death for some of us and prison for the rest.”
The strategically important port city of Mariupol lies between the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russian breakaway areas in the Donbass. It has been under siege in Ukraine since the early days of the Russian war of aggression.