Mariupol steel mill battle rages on
HEAVY fighting has been raging at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to capture the strategically vital port.
The bloody battle comes amid growing suspicions that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a major battlefield success – or perhaps announce an escalation of the war – in time for Victory Day on Monday. It is the biggest patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.
After 10 weeks of war, Ukraine’s military said it has recaptured some areas in the south and repelled other attacks in the east, further frustrating Mr Putin’s ambitions. Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting village by village as Moscow struggles to gain momentum in the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas.
In the most searing example of how Ukrainian forces have slowed Russia’s progress, Ukrainian fighters are holed up in the tunnels and bunkers under the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol – the last pocket of resistance in a city otherwise controlled by Moscow’s forces.
Civilians, believed to number around a few hundred, are also trapped inside the plant.
Ukraine said its fighters drove back a Russian assault into the giant mill, which was also being bombed from above.
The Kremlin denied that there is any ground assault.