KYIV, April 24,2022: Russia resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city.
But he said America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, would visit Kyiv on Sunday and discuss the types of weapons Ukraine needs as Russia’s invasion enters its third month.
“As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskiy told a Saturday evening news conference.
The White House has not confirmed any travel plans for Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined comment.
The attack on Mariupol, the biggest battle of the conflict, has raged for weeks. Capturing the city is seen as vital to Russia’s attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.
Moscow-backed separatists have held territory in the Donbas region for years.
Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still there. The United Nations and Red Cross say the civilian toll is at least in the thousands.
A new attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor said.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa, at least eight people were killed, Zelenskiy said. Two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings and two more were destroyed on Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces said.
