(Reuters) – Ukrainian fighters were clinging to their last redoubt in Mariupol after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the war, declaring the port city “liberated” following weeks of relentless bombardment.
FIGHTING
* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces control most of Mariupol but Ukrainian troops remain in a part of it. About 120,000 civilians were blocked from leaving, he said.
* Hundreds of Ukrainian troops remain bunkered down at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel factory. Putin told his troops to blockade it.
* British military intelligence said a full Russian assault on the plant would likely mean heavy Russian casualties and Putin’s decision to blockade it would free up forces for elsewhere in the east.
* Heavy shelling continued in the eastern Donbas as Russia tried to advance towards settlements, the British Ministry of Defence said in a regular bulletin.
DIPLOMACY
* U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $800 million in more weaponry for Ukraine and said he would ask Congress for more money to help the Ukrainian military.
* Newly disclosed “Ghost” drones that are part of America’s latest arms package for Ukraine were developed by the U.S. Air Force for attacking targets and are destroyed after a single use, the Pentagon said.
* British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland walked out of an International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington to protest the invasion of Ukraine when Russia’s delegate spoke.
ECONOMY
* Ukraine is working with lawyers on a mechanism to use frozen Russian funds to compensate it for its economic losses, its justice minister told Reuters.
* World Bank President David Malpass said the food security crisis caused by the war was likely to last months and that Ukraine had suffered some $60 billion worth of physical damage.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged countries that have not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to do so and to avoid violating sanctions imposed on Russia.
QUOTES
* “There’s no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities … block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can get through”: Putin on sealing off the steel plant.
“If you have a helmet and a bulletproof vest, but you do not have a gun in your hands, you are doomed”: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, appealing for military aid.
(Compiled by Alexandra Hudson, Rosalba O’Brien, Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill)
