MARIUPOL – The city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine remains contested, according to a senior US defense official, as Ukrainian forces hold out against “almost a dozen” battalion tactical groups, or BTGs. “Our assessment is Mariupol is still contested,” the official said Monday. Mariupol, a city which Russia has reduced to rubble in many places, has become the focus of the renewed Russian offensive focusing on the south and east of Ukraine. The Russians have committed about a dozen battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to the fight in Mariupol, the official said. “Should Mariupol fall to the Russians, that would free up another almost a dozen battalion tactical groups to be used elsewhere in the east and in the south,” the official said.

Source: The Nation April 19, 2022 13:02 UTC