Mariupol Has Been “Wiped Off The Face Of The Earth,” Ukrainian Governor Says

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor over Mariupol, has said Friday that the city of Mariupol has been “wiped off the face of the earth” after weeks of relentless shelling and missile strikes from Russian forces.

“The enemy may seize the land Mariupol used to stand on, but the city of Mariupol has been wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian Federation, by those who will never be able to restore it,” he said. “To restore Mariupol, that is something only Ukraine can do.”

As to the fate of the city, he described that at this point it is “no more” and that in reality the Russians have nothing left to seize. Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that “Russia gave holdout Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverised southeastern port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces almost completely controlled in what would be its biggest capture of the nearly two-month war.”

All of this comes just after Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said that for the first time Russia used long-range bombers to attack Ukrainian positions in the port city.

“On April 14, two Russian strategic heavy bombers Tu-95/-160 have launched cruise missiles hitting the territory of Ukraine from Krasnodar Krai of Russian Federation airspace,” he said. “Also for the first time from the start of the armed aggression bombs were dropped by a long-range bombers Tu-22M3. This airstrike took place, hitting Mariupol.”

Earlier last week Mariupol mayor’s estimated that over 10,000 civilians had died over the course of the war which had seen the city on the Sea of Azov attacked and besieged from nearly the start of the invasion.

Footage shows airstrikes from Tu-22M3 long range strategic bomber targeting the Azovstal factory in which the last remains of Azov are holding themselves up. pic.twitter.com/GC7zTs8cTC

He had described that dead bodies “carpeted the streets” – though it was impossible for outside observers to verify the high death estimate given.

The AP had reported, “The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000…”

On Sunday Bloomberg reports that Russia could be contemplating a naval landing of forces to overwhelming the final holdout Ukrainian troops in and around the city:

Ukraine warned of a possible Russian naval landing operation at Mariupol in addition to new air strikes. Russia called on remaining forces in the besieged city to surrender. Many are thought to be within the massive Azovstal steelworks; Moscow said “foreign mercenaries” are among them, citing intercepted conversations.

Footage from earlier today shows Tu-22M3 long range strategic bomber refueling in-air above Vyazma, Russia. pic.twitter.com/Hdm4AZV93Y

Recently United Nations officials warned that the true civilian death toll in the country may never be known, that it’s likely significantly higher than current official estimates.

“You might want to read more and try to insult less. You’re running on nothing but liberal emotions.”

Your silly. There is not a Liberal drop of blood in me. You seem to think that Conservatism is a monolithic line of thinking and no two Conservatives can disagree, so you try to restort to a sort of slander; doesn’t work.

“Washington D.C., December 12, 2017 – U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990”

You are misinformed and that misinformation originated in the Kremlin and over the years has been propagated by all sorts of sources as if their own. Baker and Gorbechev were discussing possibilities concerning the uniting of Germany, not discussing Eastern Europe, the Warsaw pact nations and the like. Gorbechev has admitted that. NATO non-German forces in Germany were not going into Eastern Germany upon unification. Still Communist Poland was pleased to hear that, but within two years Poland was no longer Communist, no longer a Soviet serf-state and no longer with security concerns about a unified Germany. In time Poland’s security concerns went in the other direction, eastward.

“Informed sources”

Civilians with their own opinions are no better than the typical civlians anywhere. Innuendos from person impressions do not convincing evidence make.

I could tell you ours, from my next door neighbor’s boss and his Ukraine relatives in and out of Ukraine; a very different picture than yours.

But they are not the point either.

NATO has attacekd no one in Europe at any time. Ukraine attacked no one and invaded no one. The same cannot be said for Putin.

Good point, well taken. Really. But I still insist this is a case of failed diplomacy, and since 2013 the meddling of Obama and the Bidens have gotten us in this mess. I would have thought it much wiser to negotiate and given up two Provinces and cut a deal to NOT join NATO, than see another World War III break out, much like World War I, which was fought over some border dispute between Austria and Hungary.

“But I still insist this is a case of failed diplomacy, and since 2013 the meddling of Obama and the Bidens have gotten us in this mess. I would have thought it much wiser to negotiate and given up two Provinces”

1. So many people want to ignore and dismiss Putin’s meddling in Ukraine, in its politics and in the so-called “breakaway” areas in eastern Ukraine, all through the years since he first got the leadership in Russia (over all the different U.S. administrations), and want to pretend forces in Ukraine that disagree with Putin, and nations in Europe, and the U.S. were going to, and supposed to just ignore and dismiss all of it as well - and do nothing either. That merely accepts Putin’s erroneous notion that Putin/Russia has inviolate rights to and in Ukraine that no one can oppose. Why?

2. Neither the other European nations nor the U.S. has ever held the position that they have the right to reach an agreement with Russia that they’ll then dictate to Ukraine, nor to tell Ukraine it must give up any of its territory (established since 1917) to Putin. It is rather funny and hypocritical that many who suggest Europeans or the U.S. should do just that also are complaining about “western meddling” in Ukraine. So which is it?

The bottom line is that neither Ukraine nor NATO invaded or attacked anyone in Europe. The same cannot be said of Putin.

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