Failure is not an option for Ukraine — and the West needs to send more military aid ASAP; Civilians continue to face horrors as Mariupol becomes Ukrainian Alamo; The defense of Mariupol will go down in history for its courage and brutality, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Failure is not an option for Ukraine — and the West needs to send more military aid ASAP:

Failure is not an option for Ukraine with the entire world watching — including the Chinese Communist Party, which is hoping the West fails. For Beijing knows that Taiwan will be easy pickings if Russia beats Ukraine.

The stakes cannot get any higher. War criminal Vladimir Putin is going all in on a massive offensive that stretches from Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south. His goal: to carve off as big a chunk of eastern Ukraine as possible and ensure he can say he was victorious in his war of aggression that has gone from bad to worse in record fashion.

The bad news for Kyiv is the deck is stacked against it now, as the war fought up until now is about to change dramatically.

The Donbas region will not favor Ukraine’s current composition of forces and Western arms that are mostly defensive and built to fight in urban conditions,

Putin’s plan of attack will be to use large armored columns that include tanks, armored personnel carriers and lots of bombers in the sky to take large chunks of flat, rolling country. —>READ MORE HERE

Civilians continue to face horrors as Mariupol becomes Ukrainian Alamo:

Bodies littered the streets and Ukrainian troops rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender what is left of the bombed wasteland of Mariupol on Wednesday, with the last remaining defenders of the Donbas port city taking cover at a steel plant that threatens to become a Ukrainian Alamo.

The last stand at Azovstal — a sprawling industrial complex in the city’s east — could be the final act of resistance in a city that has been cut off and pummeled by airstrikes and artillery fire since the early days of the war.

“This is our last address to the world. It may be our last one ever,” Major Serhiy Volyna of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, known to be among the steel plant’s defenders, said in a video message posted to Facebook on Wednesday. “We might only have a few days, or even hours, remaining.”

Volyna said he had 500 wounded troops with him in Azovstal, as well as hundreds of civilians, including women and children.

In a video from one of the bunkers, terrified young mothers can be seen cradling their babies while toddlers are bundled in heavy coats to protect them from the bitter cold, the Times of London reported.

“We get a bit scared when they start shooting,” said one boy, who appeared to be around 5 or 6.

A teenage girl recalled how she had survived shelling in the early days of the invasion. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NY POST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++The defense of Mariupol will go down in history for its courage and brutality+++++

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