Ukraine's remaining forces in the city of Mariupol may have "only a few days or hours left" as relentless Russian attacks continue. Another attempt to get civilians out of the battered port failed on Wednesday (April 20).
The warning that Ukrainians holding out against Russia's siege don't have long left came in a video message from a fighter, apparently calling for help. Defenders are making a last stand in a giant steel factory.
If Mariupol falls, it will be Vladimir Putin's biggest success of the war so far. It would help Russia form a land bridge from the Russian mainland, through the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbas which it is trying to capture permanently, all the way to the Crimea - which Russia occupied for access to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in 2014.
