Russia finally storms Ukrainian army’s last stronghold in Mariupol

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Russia finally resumed its assault on the last remaining Ukrainian troops at the giant steel plant in Mariupol, Saturday, April 23, 2022, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern port city and said its troops did not need to take over the plant.

Russian forces attacked the Azovstal complex, Mariupolby plane and tried to storm it, said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych.

“The enemy is trying to strangle the last match of the Mariupol fighters,” he said.

The biggest fighting in the conflict has raged for weeks as Russia seeks to seize a city seen as vital in its bid to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow captured in 2014.

Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier said the remaining Ukrainian soldiers had been “safely blockaded” at the steel plant.

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin declared the city “liberated” and ordered his defense minister to block the Azovstal complex “so that not even a fly can get through” rather than trying to invade it.

Arestovych said Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal compound were still holding out “despite the very difficult situation” and were trying to counterattack.

More than 1,000 civilians are hiding with troops at the Azovstal factory, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Russian troops surrounded and bombarded Mariupol – home to more than 400,000 people before the war – for weeks, leaving the city in ruins.

Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians were killed and says 100,000 civilians are still there. The United Nations and the Red Cross say civilian casualties are at least in the thousands.

Maxar Technologies, a US company, said Friday that Mariupol satellite imagery showed a second grave had been expanded in late March and early April at Vynohradne, with the new long trench likely to be the site of a new grave.

The company said Thursday that its imagery had found separate burial sites at other locations near the city with more than 200 graves.

Next: Russia and Ukraine win each other in Donbas

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