Russia steps up attacks on Azovstal steelworks, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol | International

Russia has stepped up its offensive against the Azovstal steelmaker. Vladimir Putin’s army has resumed this Thursday the bombardments against the steel factory in the city of Mariupol, according to the Ukrainian government, where after a first and complex evacuation some 200 civilians and an unspecified number of Ukrainian soldiers are still taking refuge. in the huge Soviet-era plant, built like a small city with underground tunnels and bunkers.

Following the intense siege on the now nearly devastated port city where thousands have died since the start of the Russian invasion, only the Azovstal military stands in the way of Putin declaring full control over Mariupol. Its conquest would allow the Kremlin to score a military point at home to coincide with May 9, when Russia commemorates with grand parades the victory of the Red Army against Nazi Germany, which Vladimir Putin has made a central part of his discourse on a great Russia.

The survivors who have emerged these days from the bowels of the steel mill -mostly women and children- and who have managed to reach the city of Zaporizhia in a humanitarian convoy, assure that the situation in the plant is desperate, with hardly any water, medicines and with serious injuries among the military. As she wipes away her tears, Yelena explains that she hasn’t heard from her husband, a member of the National Guard’s Azov battalion, for three days. And she was only able to do it through a text message. “We need help. It’s not fair. The world cannot ignore what is happening in Mariupol”, she sobbed, standing next to the tent for the care of displaced people from the south-east in the Zaporizhia region. She goes every day with a group of relatives of people who remain in the steel mill.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that Russian troops have stormed the Azovstal plant and are blockading and trying to eliminate “with the support of aircraft” the Ukrainian forces at the steelworks. Russia had agreed to a ceasefire to allow further evacuations of the steelworks and kyiv denounces that it has not complied with it and that there is already fighting inside the steelworks complex.

The Kremlin, which before the war assured for weeks that it had no intention of invading Ukraine, denies this and speaks only of a blockade on the steel mill. Russian state media footage and satellite images show ongoing fighting near the steel plant. A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said on state television that clashes have continued at the steel mill but are being repelled by Ukrainian forces.

Russia has used 10% of its combat forces in the Mariupol offensive, according to Western military analysts, who estimate that the Kremlin sent about 12 battalions to the port city. Now, with much of the city in ruins, Moscow has relocated most of those forces to other areas of Donbas, to fuel the second phase of the offensive, in which it has run aground. Moscow declared victory over Mariupol on April 21 after weeks of siege and shelling, but fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces in Azovstal has prevented the Kremlin from seizing complete control of it.

In a video recorded overnight, an Azov battalion commander, Denis Prokopenko, claimed that Russian troops had entered the steelworks and spoke of “hard and bloody battles”. “The situation is extremely challenging; however, we continue to maintain the defense”, Prokopenko remarked.

The bombings on Azovstal, the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, have been continuous during the night and the morning of this Thursday, assured Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the city government. The Soviet-era steel mill, founded in Stalin’s time and boasting a maze of tunnels and bunkers to resist attacks, has “turned into hell,” Andriushchenko said.

Meanwhile, with the mediation of the UN and the International Red Cross, the Ukrainian government tries to continue the evacuations from the city of Mariupol, from where a trickle of cars continue to arrive in Zaporizhia, through occupied territory. On Wednesday, more than 340 women, children and the elderly arrived in the industrial town through a humanitarian corridor.

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