"Ukrainian forces appeared to be losing their grip Saturday on Mariupol"

[bluewater]

Today at 12:39 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 3:40 p.m. EDT

Ukrainian forces appeared to be losing their grip Saturday on Mariupol, with Russian forces advancing farther into parts of the besieged southern port city.

Fierce fighting for control of the strategically important city continued to hinder search and rescue efforts for hundreds of civilians believed trapped beneath the rubble of a theater after Russia bombed it Wednesday. Other major population centers, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, remained in Ukrainian hands, as the Pentagon estimated that Russia’s troops were “stalled across the country.”

As the death toll rose, the United Nations said Friday that about 9.8 million of Ukraine’s 44 million people have fled or been internally displaced. Ten humanitarian corridors were opened Saturday to help civilians flee, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of committing war crimes by blocking deliveries of critical aid to people remaining in embattled cities. He called for “meaningful negotiations” with Moscow.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/19/russia-ukraine-war-news-putin-live-updates/

[ColinC]

1. I doubt Russia will be able to hold Kherson if they take Mariupol

With the advance of Ukraine from the west, and the resources that will be needed to hold onto Mariupol. I imagine Russia could take Mariupol and lose Kherson almost simultaneously.

[Lovie777]

2. Russia damn near flatten Mariupol . . ..

killing and maiming it's citizens. The survivors have been shut out of food and water and electricity in the dead of winter and yet they still fight. They may have loss grip of Mariupol today but there is always tomorrow.

[blue-wave]

3. No

The Ukrainian forces have retreated from populated areas to save civilian lives, thereby moving the battle away from the civilian areas. But now the Russians are forcibly removing, ethnically cleansing, those civilians to Russia. Straight out of the playbook that Stalin, Hitler and now Putin wrote. Evil pieces of rat shit. And don't doubt for a minute that the rat shit Russians will not use the shell shocked Ukrainian civilians for propaganda purposes. As a matter of fact, bet on it.

So there is movement around the city and it might appear to be one thing but is really another.

[abqtommy]

5. Thanks for your insight. nt

[uponit7771]

4. Let them in the briar patch, RU doesn't have the forces to "hold" Mariupol *IF* Mariupol citizens

... were heavily armed.