Putin orders sealing off trapped Ukraine defenders

ZAPORIZHZHIA AFP April21, 2022 - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed the “liberation” of the flattened city of Mariupol after nearly two months of fighting, demanding that its trapped Ukrainian defenders be sealed up in their underground last stand.   

The fate of the besieged port has become totemic as Russia battles to complete a land bridge covering territories of Ukraine already under its control, including Crimea, which would deprive Ukraine of its industrial heartland and most of its coastline.   

Ukraine appealed for an immediate humanitarian corridor to allow civilians and wounded fighters to be evacuated from Mariupol’s sprawling Azovstal steel plant.   

 “They have almost no food, water, essential medicine,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.