The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Russia tightens grip on Mariupol plant
KYIV — Evacuations of civilians trapped in a bombedout steelworks in the city of Mariupol resumed late on Friday, hours after Russia was accused of violating a truce intended to allow them to depart after weeks under siege.
Mariupol has endured the most destructive bombardment of the 10-week-old war, and the sprawling Soviet-era Azovstal plant is the last part of the city — a strategic southern port on the Azov Sea — still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters.
Ukraine says Russia has stepped up attacks on the plant in the hope of seizing it by Monday, when Moscow marks Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Un-brokered evacuations of some of the hundreds of civilians who had taken shelter in the plant’s network of tunnels and bunkers began last weekend before being halted by renewed fighting.
But on Friday afternoon, two buses carrying 25 civilians, including children, arrived at the staging post of Bezimenne, around 30 km to the east. A further 23 evacuees were reported to be on their way, with more expected.
The city’s mayor has estimated 200 people remained trapped at the plant with little food or water.
Mariupol authorities earlier said Russian forces had fired at a car that was involved in an attempt to evacuate the plant, killing one Ukrainian fighter and wounding six.
Russia had no immediate comment. It has previously said humanitarian corridors were in place.
Andriy Biletsky, a founder of the Azov Regiment holed up in the steelworks, said it was under attack and called on the United Nations and world leaders to help rescue everyone there.
In a video from the plant posted online late on Thursday, an Azov regiment medic who gave his name as Hasan described people dying from wounds and starvation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the blockade of Mariupol as torture and said if Russia killed civilians or troops who could otherwise be released, his government could no longer hold peace talks with Moscow.
The port, which lies between the Crimea Peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine taken by Russia-backed separatists the same year, is key to linking up the two Russianheld territories and blocking key Ukrainian exports.
Nearly 25 million tonnes of grain, needed to prevent prices spiralling and causing hunger around the world, were stuck in Ukraine, said Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Markets and Trade Division in Geneva.
He described the situation as “almost grotesque.”
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces were continuing to try to take over the rest of eastern Ukraine, where Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed an ammunition depot in Kramatorsk and shot down two Ukrainian warplanes.
Ukraine said it had captured 11 Russian snipers in the region around its second city, Kharkiv.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s statements about battlefield events.
In Mariupol, Ukraine’s general staff said on Friday morning Russia had resumed its efforts to overrun the Azovstal plant, including with air support.