Ukraine says Russia forced to back off bid to take Mariupol

The Ukrainian military says it has repelled a Russian attempt to take control of the strategic port of Mariupol.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff says in a statement that Russian forces retreated after suffering losses.

An explosion in an apartment building that came under fire from a Russian army tank in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Friday, March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The Russian military has besieged the Azov Sea port city of 430,000 for a week and a half, leaving its residents desperate for power, water and food. More than 2,500 residents of Mariupol have been killed by the Russian shelling.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says in televised remarks that Russian shelling on Monday thwarted another attempt to deliver food and medicines to the city.

A humanitarian convoy of 160 civilian cars left Mariupol after repeated failures to evacuate civilians because of Russian shelling.

Earlier, Martin Griffiths, the UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, told CNN that the city is “the center of the hell we see in Ukraine at the moment.”

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