RUkraine says US troops at site of besieged Azov steel plant Mariupol Advanced. One is still in contact with the defenders, says MP David Arachamia on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Contact with Ukrainian soldiers at the Azov plant has, however, been lost, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko told Ukrainian television. The authorities therefore do not know whether the Ukrainian soldiers there are “safe or not”. He reported “heavy fighting” on the site.
The Azov regiment entrenched in the factory on Tuesday accused the Russian army of launching a major attack on the factory. Russia attacked the steelworks with ground troops and tanks, the Azov regiment announced on Telegram. Two women were killed and a dozen other civilians injured in the shelling that preceded the attack. The steel plant represents the last stronghold of Ukrainian fighters in the strategically important port city of Mariupol.
The AP news agency analyzed new satellite images on Wednesday suggesting fighting was underway. A recording from Planet Labs PBC on Wednesday morning showed black smoke rising from one side of the facility near a canal. The buildings on the factory site had gaping holes.
Current situation in Ukraine.
Source: WORLD infographic
According to Mayor Boichenko, around 200 civilians were still on the premises of the Azov steelworks. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday evening, 156 civilians were brought from Mariupol to Ukrainian-held Zaporizhia during the previous evacuation operation carried out by the UN and the Red Cross. Another evacuation campaign is planned for Wednesday, “if the security situation allows it”, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk.
About 150 civilians were evacuated after nearly two months in the shelter of the Mariupol steel plant. Here they have arrived in Zaporizhia in the south-east of Ukraine
Source: dpa/-
Source: Infographic WELT/Jörn Baumgarten
Moscow has denied a major attack on the Azov steel plant. “There is no storming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Almost three weeks ago, President Vladimir Putin ordered a halt to all attacks on steel mills.
On April 21, Putin gave the order to continue to besiege the factory – so tightly that “not a fly can get out”. Storming the complex with numerous underground tunnels made no sense, Putin said at the time.
This satellite image shows the Azov steelworks in Mariupol after Russian troops attacked it
Source: AP/Planet Labs PBC
Meanwhile, in the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv more than a month after the withdrawal of Russian troops, new civilian bodies are being found almost every day. As of Wednesday, a total of 1,235 murdered civilians had been discovered, regional administration chief Olexander Pavlyuk said on Telegram on Wednesday. Of these, 282 are still unidentified. It was only on Tuesday that 20 new victims showing signs of torture were brought to the morgue.
Russia bombs infrastructure across Ukraine
According to its own statements, the Russian army attacked neighboring Ukraine from the air a total of 77 times in one day. Up to 310 Ukrainian fighters were killed and 36 units of military equipment destroyed on Wednesday, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow. The statements could not be independently verified.
According to Ukrainian reports, Russia is targeting the country’s infrastructure. Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of Ukrainian Railways, said Tuesday’s attacks hit six stations in central and western Ukraine, among other places. This resulted in serious damage.
The governor of the region Dnipro, Valentin Resnichenko, also said that Russian missiles had hit railway infrastructure in the region. One person was injured. Rail service has been interrupted. The Ukrainian army reported similar attacks in the Kirovohrad region. There were an unknown number of casualties.
parts of town Lviv According to media reports, in the west of the country there was also no electricity after three power stations were damaged by rockets, according to Mayor Andrij Sadowyj. As a result, he said, there were also problems with the water supply as pumps broke down due to a lack of electricity.
Firefighters extinguish a power plant in Lemberg (Lviv) hit by Russian missiles
Source: REUTERS
They were also attacked Vinnytsia andn/a Kirovograd in the center and Odessa in the southwest of the country. For the first time since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, the region was also Transcarpathia was attacked with rockets near the border with Hungary, as reported by regional governor Viktor Mikita in the Telegram online service.
According to kyiv leaders, Russia wants to stop Western arms supply with rocket attacks on Ukrainian railway lines. This was written by the head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, on Telegram on Tuesday evening. But it will not be possible to stop the supply of armaments, Yermak said. “Everything matters.”
Politically, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj interpreted the attacks as a sign of Moscow’s impotence. “Obviously the Russian military reacted extremely nervously to our successes today,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video address in Kyiv. However, a clear military target could not be identified as even Transkapatia in the far west on the border with Hungary was bombarded. The Russians only covered up their helplessness “because Ukraine is too strong for them”, Zelenskyy said.
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