Russia claims to have 'liberated' Mariupol after weeks of bombardment

[AZLD4Candidate]

Source: Yahoo via AOL

LONDON — Russian officials claimed Thursday that the port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine had came under their control. The besieged city has been reduced to rubble since the launch of the invasion on Feb. 24 as Russian forces attempted to capture the city for eight weeks.

“Mariupol has been liberated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the forces of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” Kremlin Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting in Moscow. Shoigu called the city “a powerful, fortified area, equipped with a large number of heavy weapons and military equipment.”

Also during the televised address, Shoigu said that around 2,000 Ukrainian troops were continuing to hold out in the massive Azovstal steel plant, which spans 4 miles. He then alleged that the troops were using their civilians as human shields and that the Russian army “took all measures to preserve the lives of civilians.”

It is estimated that at least tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol, with the city’s mayor stating last week that around 100,000 still remain there. On Wednesday, an adviser to the mayor said the 1,000 civilians inside the steel building, believed to be the last stronghold, had no access to “normal” supplies of food and water. The Kremlin has denied intentionally targeting civilians.

Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/russia-claims-liberated-mariupol-weeks-123655819.html`

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Interesting use of the word "liberated."

[COL Mustard]

1. They had to destroy the city

In order to liberate it.

[Irish_Dem]

2. "At least tens of thousands of civilians killed."

[Tomconroy]

3. Apparently firefights outside the steel plant took place today.

[IronLionZion]

4. Liberated from who? Life?

It's an odd way to describe mass murder and complete destruction

[PortTack]

5. The civilians no doubt will be taken to Russia never to heard from again. The children will be

Separated from their parents and adopted out to russians. Sick bastards

[yaesu]

6. US officials dismissed Vladimir Putin's claim that his forces have "liberated" Mariupol

Putin's claim to have 'liberated' Mariupol is disinformation, US says
Officials in the US have dismissed as “disinformation” the claim by Russian president Vladimir Putin that his forces have “liberated” the port city of Mariupol, Reuters reports.

At a news briefing Thursday afternoon, Ned Price, spokesperson for the department of state, said:

We understand that Ukraine’s forces continue to hold their ground and there is every reason to believe that President Putin and his defence minister’s show for the media that we saw in recent hours is even yet more disinformation from their well-worn playbook.”

Guardian

[AZLD4Candidate]

10. I know it's fake and that RAS-putin will say anything. Just posting it in LBN because

it shows the depths Putler will go.

[Warpy]

7. The problem is that the steel mill area is huge

and the area is honeycombed with tunnels. Both military and civilians were sheltering there and I know of only one way to clear them.

Time will tell. Putin will face war crime charges if that's the horror show Russia chose in the name of expediency.

[Talitha]

8. ...the Russian army "took all measures to preserve the lives of civilians."

Bullshit.

[Bettie]

9. Well, by all measures they mean

none, no measures because they don't do that. Ever.

[sakabatou]

11. Of course.

[C Moon]

12. Mariupol of blood. Fuck off putin you little shit...hiding away like a scared dimwitted fuck head.

You're no hero. You won't go down in history as anything more than a vile, self-centered little shit head.
I hope you are highly medicated for a cancer that is eating away at ever corner of your body. Die jackass, die.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. What evil. Pure evil. I wish Moscow was in rubble and that's not right either.

[EndlessWire]

17. I know how you feel. n/t

[Lovie777]

14. The 2,000 plus UA and Azov are still there . ...

and not just in the steel plant, they are also outside

[heckles65]

15. This reminds me so much of the Battle of Stalingrad

...with the Russians in the role of the attackers on Pavlov's House

[samsingh]

16. maybe some russian cities need to be liberated

[EndlessWire]

18. The world knows what Russia did.

History will not be kind to them. All these statements are for the consumption of the Russian public back home. No one else buys it.

I want the Russian fleet in the Azov and Black seas to be pounded now. They are surely planning to do this to Odesa in the near future. There is a chance that, if given the hardware they need, Ukraine can get ahead of that destruction and perhaps save the South.

It's very clear now that Russia wants to take ownership of the coast, all the seaports and any associated ports up river. They don't really care about the Donbas area. That was just a flag issue that they invented as an excuse, a point next to their legitimate border. The separatists there are courting disaster.

I think that Moldova is in grave danger as well. If I were Moldova, I would be rethinking everything I thought was the truth in the past, and be thinking what I would need to do to remain my own country, and not part of Russia.

If I were a Ukrainian citizen living down there in that area below Moldova and next to Romania, the part of the Odesa Oblast that is there, I'd be packing right now. They won't be spared.

[Martin68]

19. "Liberated?" More like, "We had to destroy the village to save it."

[Turbineguy]

20. Somebody should liberate Putin in the same way.

[Aussie105]

21. 'Liberate' is a strange word to use.

But it's been used a lot in the past, by many countries, including the USA, to justify death and destruction on foreign soil.

Afghanistan needed to be 'liberated' from the Taliban.
Vietnam needed to be 'liberated' from Communist forces.

etc.

All the way back to Crusaders needing to 'liberate' Moors from their non-Christian religion.

And further back.