Russia’s claim of Mariupol’s capture fuels concern for POWs

The impact of Russia’s declared victory on the broader war in Ukraine remained unclear. Many Russian troops already had been redeployed from Mariupol to elsewhere in the conflict, which began when Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24.

An aerial view of a residential area destroyed by Russian shelling in Irpin close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Russia’s claimed seizure of a Mariupol steel plant that became a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began, capping a nearly three-month siege that left a city in ruins and more than 20,000 residents feared dead.

After the Russian Defense Ministry announced late Friday that its forces had removed the last Ukrainian fighters from the plant’s miles of underground tunnels, concern mounted for the Ukrainian defenders who now are prisoners in Russian hands.