‘Ukraine Separatist Forces Tasked To Encircle Mariupol’

Kyiv, March 1: A Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said his forces were given the task of encircling the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on Tuesday.

“The task for today is to directly encircle Mariupol,” Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying in a television interview by The Guardian.

Earlier, the mayor of Mariupol said the southern post city was under constant shelling. “We have had residential quarters shelled for five days. They are pounding us with artillery, they are shelling us with Grads, they are hitting us with air forces,” The Guardian quoted Vadym Boichenko as saying on an Ukrainian TV.

“We have civilian infrastructure damaged – schools, houses. There are many injured. There are women, children killed.”