Mariupol has not yet fallen entirely into Russia’s hands, U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday amid Moscow’s claims of victory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed a win in the strategic city of Mariupol, despite ordering his troops to not storm the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the war’s iconic battleground.
Biden told reporters in Washington, without citing specific intelligence, that Putin’s claim is “questionable” at best.
“First of all, it’s questionable whether he does control Mariupol. One thing for sure we know about Mariupol, he should allow humanitarian corridors to let people on that steel mill and other places buried under rubble to get out,” he said.
“That’s what any head of state would do in such a circumstance, and so there is no evidence yet Mariupol has completely fallen.”
Russia has bombed the southeastern port city since the war began on Feb. 24, and largely reduced it to ruins.
Top officials have repeatedly claimed its capture was imminent, but Ukrainian forces have held onto parts of the city despite finite ammunition.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have been holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, as Russian forces pounded the industrial site and repeatedly issued ultimatums ordering their surrender.
On Wednesday, the commander of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, one of the last units believed to be holding out in Mariupol, asked for international help to escape the port city’s siege.
“This is our appeal to the world. It may be our last. We may have only a few days or hours left,” said Major Serhiy Volyna in a video uploaded to Facebook.
“The enemy units are dozens of times larger than ours, they have dominance in the air, in artillery, in ground troops, in equipment and in tanks.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia controls most of the city, but Ukrainian troops remain in a part of it.
He also said roughly 120,000 civilians have been blocked from leaving the besieged city, which was home to around 400,000 Ukrainians before the war began. Several attempts to organize civilian evacuations and deliver aid to the city have failed.
Back in Washington, Biden announced a series of new supports for Ukraine, including US$800 million in military aid to help Kyiv resist Russia’s new offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Analysts have said the offensive in the east could become a war of attrition as Russia faces Ukraine’s most experienced, battle-hardened troops, who have fought pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas for eight years.
Russia has backed a rebel movement in the region since 2014, the same year Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in the south. Capturing Mariupol could allow for an unfettered connection between Crimea and the mainland.
Biden said the U.S. can support Ukraine for “a long time,” but hopes international support will remain as the war drags on.
“(We have to) keep the pressure on Putin to prevent him from overrunning the country … and … to make sure we continue to maintain the economic sanctions, which over time and we’re beginning to see, they’re devastating their economy and their ability to move forward,” he said.
“The most important thing right now is to maintain unity, and so far so good.”
— with files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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