MARIUPOL, Ukraine — The airport in Ukraine’s second-largest port is shut. A Moscow-led “rebellion” around the city in 2014 made it too dangerous for planes to fly in.
At that time, Mariupol repelled the Russian-backed ”rebels.” But the city still sits adjacent to the front line, separated from a Russian-controlled enclave in eastern Ukraine only by military checkpoints that bar most vehicles — and by a buffer zone of wrecked seaside homes.
On a visit a week ago, as I spoke with locals and refugees from nearby Russian-occupied territory, I could easily imagine the future Vladimir Putin envisions for Ukraine. If Russia can gain control of the entire country via a second invasion, or can at least expand the eastern enclaves that Moscow already controls to include Mariupol, the outlook is grim.
