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Russia is insisting on taking Mariupol because it could give the Russian military a decisive advantage in the fight for Donbass.
Military expert, former German General Walter Feichtinger reminds DW how the port city has been reduced to ashes, there is an extraordinary number of civilian casualties, and at the Azostal steel plant there is a strong resistance that could greatly tarnish the victory of the Russian side .
All this, according to him, shows how necessary President Putin is to talk about a success, because the war waged so far has not been successful. Militaryly, the capture of Mariupol would be of great interest to the Russians because in this way, Moscow could create a land bridge between Crimea and Donbass.
With this continuously large territory, stretching from Kherson to Mariupol and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russia can already exert much greater pressure. Perhaps this is the purpose of the next phase, during which one could also think of discussions and peace talks, because Russia has managed to take control of part of the territory.
The expert says that the symbolic value of Mariupol should not be underestimated either, a goal announced by the Russians in 2014, when it came to the creation of separatist territories. He was also briefly attacked, however the attack was repulsed. As for Putin’s order not to attack Azovstal, but to surround him, the former general thinks that this is understandable from a military point of view, since a war in such a region is too expensive, many casualties must be expected.
From the Russian side, they use instead a method that I would describe as treacherous, he says, as it consists of blocking the opponent, bombing him from the air and waiting until the opponents have run out of everything: weapons, ammunition and of course, food supply.
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