US suggests Russian forces are devastating Mariupol because Putin is angry that Ukrainians are resisting

• The US State Department said Russia's bombardment on Mariupol could be fueled by "vengeance."
• Spokesperson Ned Price said Putin may have been surprised by Ukraine's resistance and that Russian forces are taking it out on the city's civilians.

The US State Department suggested that Russian forces are bombarding civilians in the southern port city of Mariupol because President Vladimir Putin is angry that Ukrainians are resisting.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a Tuesday press briefing that there are a number of theories as to why Putin's forces have "brutalized" the population with shelling and airstrikes.

"Mariupol is, of course, a strategic location," Price said. "But there also may be an element of vengeance... against this population, with Putin perhaps having been under the misimpression — whether he was misinformed or just unwitting of reality — that his forces would not be greeted as anything other than the aggressors that they are."

Price added that Russian forces have faced stiff resistance to the advancement of Russian forces in Mariupol.

Price added that the ferocity of the Ukrainian defense may have surprised the Kremlin — leading to the ongoing onslaught against the besieged city.

"We have seen the residents of Mariupol rise up to defend their homeland, their country, to defend their territorial integrity the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," Price said.

Mariupol has been devastated by Russian forces after nearly a month into Russia's war against Ukraine, which has refused to surrender.

Soldiers and civilians of the besieged city have been buried in mass graves after intense Russian attacks, and convoys of cars filled with people trying to escape the city stretch for miles.

Schools, hospitals, and homes have all been targeted by Russian forces, including a theater sheltering hundreds of children that was bombed.

Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Putin's forces have forcibly deported thousands of civilians to remote Russian cities.

Meanwhile, multiple attempts by Ukraine and Russia to mediate a ceasefire or create humanitarian corridors to safely evacuate civilians have not been successful.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has slammed the brutal assault, calling Russia's actions "war crimes."

"The besieged Mariupol will go down in history of responsibility for war crimes. The terror the occupiers did to the peaceful city will be remembered for centuries to come," Zelenskyy said in a video address on Telegram on Sunday.