Published on: 04/22/2022 – 12:31 Even if Ukrainian fighters continue to fiercely defend the immense Azovstal metallurgical complex there, Moscow affirmed on Thursday that it had “liberated” the city of Mariupol, in the south of Ukraine. After two months of shelling and Russian siege, this great industrial port has become a martyr city of the war in Ukraine. Press cartoonist Lasserpe reacts to this news. A strategic hold, reduced to ruins. As Ukrainian fighters continue to resist Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday, April 21, that Russian forces had “liberated” this strategic port, ordering to besiege the last resistance fighters. For several weeks, Mariupol, whose fall would constitute an important victory for Moscow, has been at the heart of the Russian offensive. Having become a field of ruins after two months of shelling and siege, it has become a “martyr city”. “There is not a single undamaged building in Mariupol. A literally burnt city,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday in a speech to Portugal’s parliament. “For more than a month, Russian troops besieged Mariupol (…). Hundreds of thousands of civilians were (stuck) there, without food, without water, without medicine. Under constant bombardment,” he said. – he reported. According to the Ukrainian president, some 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers are still taking refuge in the huge Azovstal metallurgical complex, refusing to surrender. With them, “about a thousand civilians, women and children” and “hundreds of wounded” are refugees. Press cartoonist Lasserpe has decided to illustrate this news by depicting two Russian soldiers, in the middle of ruins. “And no one to come and cheer us on!” Laments one. “The ingrates! We did well to massacre them all,” replies the other. A cynical critique of Russian propaganda. With AFP Cartooning for Peace is an international network of cartoonists committed to promoting, through the universality of press cartoons, freedom of expression, human rights and mutual respect between populations of different cultures or beliefs.