Civilians traded for food

UKRAINE said yesterday that Russia was “trying to destroy” its remaining soldiers holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, with Kyiv’s last defenders in the battered city saying Russian forces had broken into the giant factory.

“Russian occupiers are focusing on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainian units in the Azovstal area,” Kyiv’s army said in a statement. “With the support of aircraft, Russia resumed the offensive to take control of the plant.”

The statement came as a Russianannounced ceasefire was due to begin at the besieged plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and some civilians have been trapped for weeks.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that the demands of the Ukrainian military, on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant, to exchange civilians for food and medicine were similar to those made by terrorists in Syria.

Earlier yesterday, a representative of the headquarters of the plant liberation operation said Ukrainian militants bottled up in the Azovstal plant offered to exchange civilians for food and medicine.