Strategic Ukrainian Port City ‘Blockaded’ by Russia, 2nd Nuclear Plant in Danger

Ukraine’s strategic port city Mariupol located on has reportedly been ‘blockaded’ by Russian forces, who are also closing in on the country’s second-largest nuclear plant.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Friday Mariupol has no water or electricity, and is running out of food. He appealed for military assistance and for a humanitarian corridor to be created to evacuate some of the city’s 400,000 residents. “They want to wipe Mariupol and Mariupol residents off the face of the earth,” he said in a televised appeal, describing indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and hospitals.

Deputy commander of the Azov military unit, part of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in a post on Azov’s official Telegram page the Ukrainian troops are holding the line against the attempted Russian advance on the port city, but need significant backup. “This is the last city that prevents the creation of a land corridor from Russia to Crimea…. Mariupol cannot be lost.”

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russian troops are only 32km from Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear facility. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine stated that attacking a nuclear power plant is a war crime.

According to the overseeing body of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants Energoatom, Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear facility — in terms of power generation capacity — is Yuzhnoukrainsk Nuclear Power Station in the Mykolaiv Oblast, in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said battles involving air attacks and artillery continued northwest of capital Kyiv. Northeastern cities of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka came under heavy fire. Ukraine’s troops are still holding Chernihiv city in the north, and successfully prevented Russian efforts to take the important southern city of Mykolaiv. At Mykolaiv, its Navy reportedly scuttled the biggest frigate in service, to keep it from being seized by the Russians.

Ukrainian artillery also defended Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port city and home to a large naval base, from repeated attempts by Russian ships to fire on the Black Sea port.

Russia Blocks Facebook, Restricts Twitter

Russian President Vladimir Putin blocked Facebook and some other websites, and restricted Twitter on Friday. He also passed a law introducing jail terms for “fake news” on the Army. It gave Moscow much stronger powers to crack down on independent journalism, prompting the BBC, Bloomberg and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country.

The Kremlin has denied reports that its troops were bombing Ukrainian cities. "The alleged ongoing air strikes of Kyiv and other large cities are gross propaganda fakes," Putin said in a statement issued by the Kremlin.

He added that dialogue on Ukraine would be possible only if Russian demands are met. These include the neutral and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its "denazification,” recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and of the "sovereignty" of separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.