Pentagon press secretary John Kirby says assessments show Ukrainian troops are still contesting the southern city of Mariupol despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of victory in the battle for the city in Ukraine’s industrial heartland, home to coal mines, metal plants and heavy-equipment factories.
Putin on Thursday ordered his troops not to storm a giant Mariupol steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainians remain holed up but to seal it off — in an apparent bid to free up his troops for the broader campaign in the east.
Kirby said it was “unclear” why Putin did that and Putin’s words need to be viewed with skepticism.
“They made this big show yesterday of him saying he wasn’t gonna go into that plant and try to eradicate the people that are there,” Kirby told CNN on Friday. “I think we have to watch and see what the Russians actually do here. What we would tell you this morning is that we still assess that Mariupol is contested, that it hasn’t been taken by the Russians and that there’s still an active Ukrainian resistance. So they continue to fight for that city.”
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