Good morning. This time last week, a Ukrainian marine commander fighting in Mariupol posted a video message on Facebook saying that his soldiers were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours.” But the Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal iron and steelworks are still there.
That might seem like the kind of story of extraordinary resistance that has coloured our view of the war in Ukraine – but the reality is much darker. And this morning the remaining Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in the city remain trapped after Vladimir Putin rejected a new appeal from UN secretary general António Guterres to allow the UN to help in an evacuation.
