As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the 70th day, Russian forces continue to bombard the southeastern Mariupol and set new operational targets for the eastern Donbas region.
According to the Telegraph and other foreign media, Mariupol Mayor Vadim Wojchenko told state TV on the 4th (local time) that a fierce battle is underway at the Azoustal Works and contact with Ukrainian fighters inside has been lost.
According to him, civilians, including 30 children, are still waiting to be evacuated from the Azoustal Works.
Mariupol is the main port city of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February, the Russian army has been besieging the area and conducting a concentrated offensive.
This region is a strategic point connecting the Krm Peninsula (Russian name: Crimea), which Russia forcibly annexed in 2014, and eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
The Azoustal Works has been used as a shelter for the Ukrainian military and civilians, and now remains the last stronghold in Mariupol.
Russia claims to have already taken control of Mariupol. The Russian military resumed the attack following entering a temporary ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the steelworks under UN mediation.
“There are signs that the Russian army is trying to speed up the offensive,” said Oleksandr Motuzianik, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
He fired 18 rockets from Russian strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea at Ukrainian transport infrastructure, and rockets fired at five railway electrical facilities in the metropolis of Lviv.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it was expanding its occupation territory in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
According to the Interfax news agency, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a telephone conversation on the same day that “Russian forces are continuing special military operations” and that “with the People’s Liberation Army of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) We are expanding our control over local territories,” he said.
This seems to be due to the fact that Minister Shoigu did not make any progress even though he declared ‘complete liberation’ of the Donbas region as a new goal of the Ukrainian military operation on March 25, the 30th day of the invasion of Ukraine.
Defense Minister Shoigu said, “The Russian military is taking thorough measures to protect its citizens. In order to safely evacuate civilians from the battlefield, humanitarian channels are opened every day and a ceasefire is declared.”
In particular, he explained that the Russian military is actively providing humanitarian aid to citizens, “a total of 967 humanitarian actions were carried out, and 17,567 tons of cargo were delivered through 279 of them.”
The DPR and LPR were established in the Donbas region by pro-Russian militants in 2014. It occupies 20,000 square kilometers of Donbas’ area of 50,000 square kilometers.
For the next eight years, the Ukrainian government forces and armed forces continued to face off. Russia recognized its own independence from the DPR and LPR, and used it as a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine.
Shoigu also said that Mariupol is being controlled by Russian forces.
“Peaceful life is being established in the DPR and LPR territories freed from nationalists,” he said.
“According to the instructions of the Supreme Commander (Russian President Vladimir Putin), all remaining militants located in the industrial zone of the Azoustal factory have been blocked,” said Minister Shoigu. The repeated proposals from the nationalists to put down their weapons and put down their weapons were ignored,” he explained.
He emphasized that NATO vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition to aid Ukraine will be destroyed upon arrival on Ukrainian territory.
“The United States and its NATO allies continue to pour weapons on Ukraine,” he said. Any means of transport arriving in this country with weapons or supplies for the Ukrainian military will be considered as legitimate targets of Russia,” he added.
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