Ukraine’s port of Mariupol holding out against all odds

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Under relentless bombardment and a Russian blockade, the key port of Mariupol is holding out, but weapons and supplies shortages could weaken the resistance that has thwarted the Kremlin’s invasion plans.

FILE – A man walks with harbor cranes in the background, at the trade port in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia. Unbroken by a Russian blockade and relentless bombardment, the key port of Mariupol is still holding out, a symbol of staunch Ukrainian resistance that has thwarted the Kremlin’s invasion plans. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

More than six weeks after the Russian siege began, Ukrainian troops are continuing to fight the vastly superior Russian forces in ferocious battles amid the ruins of what once was a bustling city on the Sea of Azov.

The Ukrainians’ fight has scuttled Moscow’s designs, tying up significant Russian forces and delaying the start of a planned offensive in eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Donbas.

Capturing Mariupol would allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

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