Mariupol, in ruins, still stands out for Russia and Ukraine

As Russian troops mass in an expected full-scale attack on eastern Ukraine, thousands more lay siege to the southeastern city of Mariupol in a protracted struggle to drive Kiev’s forces out of the strategic port.

Mariupol’s defenders have thwarted Russia’s seven-week effort to take the city, which lies near separatist territory that Moscow’s Ukrainian allies seized in 2014, when Russia also seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.