Effort to relieve encircled Ukrainian port put in jeopardy
MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — An attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol was thrown into jeopardy by continued fighting Tuesday as conditions grew more desperate inside the city of 430,000, with corpses in the streets and hungry residents breaking into stores for food.
As Ukraine pleaded for more warplanes, Poland said it would give all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S., apparently agreeing to an arrangement that would allow them to be used by Ukraine’s military. Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly Soviet-era fighter jets.
Ukrainian officials said renewed Russian shelling and other risks endangered the effort to relieve an encircled Mariupol, where the sound of artillery fire was relentless and where thousands crammed into basements. Many were forced to get their water from streams or by melting snow.
Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II became even more severe, with U.N. officials reporting that 2 million people have now fled Ukraine.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-europe-united-nations-evacuations-62fa232dcb9d6260fef0e9c7f5386f9a
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