UPDATED. Ukraine says Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to avoid a final clash with its forces in the city is an acknowledgment that he lacked the forces to defeat them.
KYIV, Ukraine – Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the war in Ukraine on Thursday, April 21, declaring the port of Mariupol “liberated” after nearly two months of siege although hundreds of defenders were still holed up inside a steel works.
Mariupol, once home to 400,000 people, has seen not only the most intense battle of the war that started when Russian forces invaded on February 24 but also its worst humanitarian catastrophe. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia April 21, 2022. Russian Presidential Press Service/Kremlin/Handout via REUTERS
“They physically cannot take Azovstal, they have understood this, they have taken huge losses there,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told a briefing. “Our defenders continue to hold it.”Civilian suffering Shoigu told Putin that Russia had killed more than 4,000 Ukrainian troops in its campaign to take Mariupol and that 1,478 had given themselves up. Those figures could not be verified.
“We’re in a critical window now of time where they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said.
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