Fall of Mariupol appears at hand; fighters leave steel plant

By OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and CIARAN McQUILLAN
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The fall of Mariupol appears at hand as Ukraine is moving to abandon a sprawling steel plant where its soldiers had held out under relentless bombardment for months, which would make it the biggest city to fall into Russian hands. Much of it, though, has been reduced to rubble. Ukraine estimates some 20,000 civilians have been killed in the Russian assault on Mariupol, a city on the Azov Sea that stands between the Russian mainland and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters have left the Azovstal steel plant and turned themselves over to Russian hands. Ukraine officials say efforts continue to get the remaining troops in the plant out safely.