Mariupol police officer pleads for help from Biden, Macron

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian police officer in Mariupol has warned that the besieged port city has been “wiped off the face of the earth” and has pleaded with the American and French presidents to provide his country with a modern air defense system. Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin posted a video from a rubble-strewn street on Friday. The officer said children and elderly people are dying and urged Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron to save civilian lives and make good on their promises to help Ukraine fend off the attack by Russia. The city on the Sea of Azov has been a strategic military target ever since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.