By Monica Chen  In Western media’s gaslighting, exploitative coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the worst coverage so far has been the battles in Mariupol.  Mariupol is a port city in the Donetsk region, which has fought for independence from Ukraine since 2014. It is a pro-Russian city. Mariupol in reality is a city that is under siege from Ukraine. The destruction in the city is well-documented. In this OSCE report in 2015, shelling from Ukrainian forces resulted in 30 civilians dead and 150 injured. Western media has got it backwards.  Here is the most recent example of Western media’s semi-delusional coverage of Mariupol and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in general: The picture that CNN paints is that Russia decided against storming the steel plant because of, well, a loss of guts.  But in Russian media outlet TASS, the country was celebrating securing Mariupol with the exception of the one steel plant.  Mariupol had been won. This is what Russian President Vladimir Putin said:  “In this case, we need to think about – I mean, we always …