The siege of Mariupol could be entering its final stages amid reports that Russian forces are blockading Ukrainian fighters’ last stronghold in the city. The brutality of the siege is painfully clear in the story of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, who lay dying in in a basement in the city, asking her crying daughter: “Why is this happening?”
Nearly two months on from the start of Russia’s invasion, Mariupol has come into sharp focus. What is happening in the south-eastern Ukrainian city, and why is it so important to the war?
