Russia unleashes rockets after Mariupol ceasefire
Reuters
ZAPORIZHZHIA: Russia launched an attack on the encircled Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine’s last redoubt in the port city, after a ceasefire broke down on Tuesday with some 200 civilians trapped despite a Un-brokered evacuation.
In a Telegram video, Captain Sviatoslav Palamar of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment said that Russia pounded the steel works with naval and barrel artillery through the night and dropped heavy bombs from planes.
Reuters could not independently verify his account. However, Reuters images on Monday showed volleys of rockets fired from a Russian truck-mounted launcher towards Azovstal, a sprawling Soviet-era steel works.
Palamar said two civilians were killed and 10 injured, without providing evidence.
Russia has turned its fire power on Ukraine’s east and south after failing to take the capital of Kyiv in the north in March. The offensive has been met with commitments by Western powers for tougher sanctions as well as supplies of heavier weapons to Ukraine, including air defence systems and long-range artillery.
On Tuesday, the European Commission was expected to finalise a ban on buying Russian oil in an effort to squeeze Moscow’s war chest. The US Congress is considering a $33 billion military aid package, and the United Kingdom this week vowed an additional $375 million in defence assistance.
“This is Ukraine’s finest hour, (one) that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come,” British PM Boris Johnson said in an address to Ukraine’s parliament via videolink. He was channelling the words spoken by Winston Churchill in 1940 when Britain faced the threat of being invaded and defeated by Nazi Germany.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces had used the ceasefire at Azovstal to establish new firing positions, and that Russia-backed forces were now “beginning to destroy” those positions.
Further west along the Black Sea coast, high-precision missiles struck an airfield near the port of Odesa where advanced drones and ammunition supplied to Ukraine by the United States and European allies were stored, according to Russia’s defence ministry. Ukraine confirmed a rocket strike in Odesa.
The war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24 is also heavily focused on the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, parts of which have been held by Russianbacked separatists since 2014.
Russia’s troops are trying to encircle a large Ukrainian force there, attacking from three directions with massive bombardment along the front.
Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had asked for a meeting in Moscow with Putin to try to stop the war but had not received a response. Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that he was still open to dialogue with Kiev.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Putin’s policies were imperialistic, and that he would support Finland and Sweden if they decided to join Nato, as each is now considering.
“No one can assume that the Russian president and government will not on other occasions break international law with violence,” Scholz said.
Russian bombardments since troops invaded Ukraine have flattened cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than five million to flee the country.