Posted on 04/21/2022 4:29:06 AM PDT by FarCenter
KYIV, April 21 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the Ukraine war on Thursday, declaring the port of Mariupol "liberated" after nearly two months of siege, despite hundreds of defenders still holding out inside a giant steel works.
In a televised meeting with his defence minister inside the Kremlin, Putin said there was no need for a final confrontation with the last defenders who were boxed in after surviving nearly two months of Russia's siege.
"I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary," he told Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in a televised meeting at the Kremlin. "I order you to cancel it."
"There's no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities," he said. "Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can get through."
Shoigu estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters remained inside the plant. Putin called on them to lay down their weapons and surrender, saying Russia would treat them with respect.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Dense Minister Sergei Shoigu is still around? Earlier word was, he was displaced.
Good for Putin showing mercy. Now someone, please, grab Zelenskyy by the collar, sit him down, and make peace.
The Russians are the stench in the nostrils of the civilized world.
Last I heard he had an ‘unnatural heart attack’.
Ukraine has 20 “replacement” jet aircraft. All is not lost, but it looks grim for the Azov defenders. Russia will have successfully “de-Nazified” Ukraine and they can leave now.
Surrounded, cut off, and no resupply?
That does appear to be a loss unless they are sprung by an outside attack from zelensky.
Unlike Western media, if Russia makes a claim, such as liberating Mariupol, one can bet it’s true.
“Now someone, please, grab Zelenskyy by the collar, sit him down, and make peace.”
Another breakaway” Soviet Republic, Belarus, has an aging—but generally compliant—dictatorship. Russia—evermore paranoid—will eventually need to step in, and then pose an even greater threat to Poland and the three bordering NATO Baltic states.
All this, while the southern border and Taiwan slip from front pages.
He’s busy stumping for Macron…
One does not ask soldiers to go door to door, that is if one respects the lives of his/her soldiers. First you level the city with air power or artillery and then you occupy it. Any building you are taking fire from is leveled again. It's not pretty but it is effective.
He has slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent civilians, utterly destroyed a beautiful city, kidnapped thousands of others and has been utterly humiliated by by the outnumbered and outgunned Mariopul defenders.
He can't afford any more casualties, of his own.
If the Ukrainians surrender, they will disappear, one way or the other.
Mercy...my a$$.
The Minsk agreement will be enforced by Russia and there is nothing troublemakers and ignorant loudmouths from the US can do about it.
But I was told right here on FR that Putin was huddled in his basement hiding and crying. That our glorious Ukrainian patriots were winning using just stones and toothpicks. That the Ghost of Ukraine owned the skys!
The "American armies" didn't destroy German cities: it was the RAF and the USAAF in massive bombing campaigns. It is possible to judge the morality of those bombing campaigns against German (and Japanese) civilians, but we were fighting an enemy that was both vicious and unrelenting, who had started their own versions of these kinds of indiscriminate acts first (London, Brussels, Rotterdam, Manila, etc., etc.).
The US Army fought in the rubble of German cities because that's where the holdouts of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS were fighting.
No comparison with the Ukraine which was invaded, has not conducted offensive operations against Russia and is legitimate in fighting for its own territory. Russia is clearly violating every international law, convention, and rule of humanity.
Zero comparison, bub. Didn't you learn anything in high school?
Go sip your borscht and quit annoying the rational people.
Hush, war monger.
NATO encroachment, backed by Biden Republicans, forced the war.
If Putin wants to de-Nazify something, he can de-Nazify himself. He is the one invading a neighboring country and committing war crimes.
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