US President Joe Biden questioned Russia’s claim of ‘successfully liberating’ Mariupol and announced new military aid. The new package includes much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for Donbas region.
US President Joe Biden | AP Photo
US President Joe Biden on Thursday said Russia’s claim of taking control of Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol is ‘questionable’ and announced additional military aid to Ukraine.
“It’s questionable whether he [Putin] does control Mariupol. He should allow humanitarian corridors to let people get out. There is no evidence yet that Mariupol has completely fallen,” Biden said.
The additional $800 million in military aid will help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a White House official.
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The new package includes much-needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared today that Mariupol has been ‘successfully liberated’ even as he asked his troops not to storm the Azovstal steel plant, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city.
Mariupol, after seven weeks of Russian attacks, has been reduced to a smoking ruin. Fall of the strategic port city would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war yet and free up troops to take part in battle for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.
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If Mariupol falls, Russian forces there are expected to join an all-out offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is bent on capturing after failing in its bid to take Kyiv.
Mariupol is home to Ukraine’s neo-Nazi forces that Russia alleges are carrying out genocides on Russian people in collusion with the pro-western Ukrainian government.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
On February 24, Putin ordered “a special operation” to demilitarize Ukraine’s military and ensure its neutrality with regard to its long-running strategic tussle with the US-dominated western military alliance NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
After showing early promise, Ukraine and Russia have not held face-to-face peace talks since March 29, and the atmosphere has soured over Ukrainian troops that Russian troops carried out atrocities in the town of Bucha. Moscow has denied the claims.
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