LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian fighters fighting Russian forces have refused to surrender in tunnels under a large steel mill in Mariupol because of relentless attacks, in which one of the commander’s wives said promising to “stay to the end”.
The battle over the last stronghold of Ukraine’s strategic port, which became the ruin of a Russian attack, seems increasingly desperate amid growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin wants to give the Russians a victory-or a rising war – in a timely manner. . Monday for Victory Day.
“They won’t give up,” Katerina Prokopenko said Thursday after talking on the phone with her husband, the head of the steel mill. “They’re just hoping for a miracle.”
She said her husband, Azov Regimental Commander Dennis Prokopenko, told her he loved her forever. “I’m going crazy here. “It’s like a farewell speech,” he said.
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Friday that “the blockade of defense units in the Azovstal region continues” and the Russians, with air support, continued offensive operations to control the expanded plant.
Victory Day is the largest patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar, marking the victory of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. But as long as Ukrainians resist the seizure of the plant, “Russia’s losses will continue to create and hinder their operational plans in the southern Donbas,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Approximately 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, according to Russia’s latest estimates, were buried in a labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers under an Azovstal steel mill. Several hundred civilians were also trapped there.
“Many were wounded (fighters), but they did not give up,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video speech overnight. “They stand”.
“Imagine this hell! “And there are kids there,” he said. “More than two months of continuous bombing, bombing, continuous death”.
The Russians managed to get into the factory on Wednesday with the help of an electrician who knew the layout, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.
“He showed them the underground tunnels leading to the factory,” Gerashchenko said in the video.
Zelensky said the attack prevented the evacuation of the remaining civilian population, though UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said another attempt was underway. “We have to do everything we can to get people out of this hell,” Guterres said.
The Kremlin pushed its troops by attacking the factory and demanded that the Ukrainians surrender. They refused. Russia has also accused the militants of preventing civilians from leaving.
The fall of Mariupol would deprive Ukraine of a viable port, allow Russia to build a land corridor on the Crimean peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free troops in the Donbas, an eastern industrial region where the Kremlin fought. . This is said to be his main focus today.
Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, called on Ukrainian television for the evacuation of civilians and wounded fighters from the steel plant, saying the soldiers were “dying in agony due to lack of adequate care ”.
More than 100 civilians were rescued from an iron mill over the weekend. But many previous attempts to open safe corridors from Mariupol have failed and Ukraine has been accused of bombing and shooting by Russians.
Meanwhile, 10 weeks after the start of the destructive war, the Ukrainian army claimed they had recaptured some territory in the south and repelled more attacks in the east, further destroying Putin’s ambitions after a futile attempt. to take Kiev. . Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting in every village.
Kiev general staff said Russian forces were conducting surveillance flights, while Ukrainian forces in the heavy zones of Donetsk and Luhansk repelled 11 attacks and destroyed tanks and armored vehicles. Russia does not confirm these losses.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Russian forces were only making “heavy” progress in the Donbas.
There is growing speculation that Ukraine may intend to expand its seizure of more territory from Russia outside Kharkov, its second largest city.
Ukrainian Defense Minister General Valery Zaluzhny said on Thursday that a counterattack could begin to expel Russian forces from Kharkov and Izium, which are Russia’s main control points in the eastern boiler. Ukraine has recently moved Russian troops about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Kharkov, which has been repeatedly hit by Russian bombing.
A further Ukrainian advance could surprise the city from artillery attacks, as well as force Moscow to move troops from other areas along the front line.
On Thursday, a U.S. official said the U.S. had shared information with Ukraine on the location of Russia’s flagship before a strike in mid -April that sank here, one of Moscow’s most notorious defeats during the war.
The United States has provided “a set of information” that includes the location of the warships, said an official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the decision to target the rocket cruiser “Moscow” was only Ukraine’s decision.
Fearing new attacks around Victory Day, the mayor of Ukraine’s western city of Ivano-Frankivsk urged residents to leave the countryside for a long weekend and warned them not to gather in public place.
And the southeastern city of Zaporizhia, the main transit point for evacuations from Mariupol, has declared a curfew from Sunday night to Tuesday morning.
Mariupol, with a population of over 400,000 before the war, became a symbol of the catastrophe caused by the war. The siege of the city overwhelmed 100,000 civilians with little food, water, medicine or heat.
As fighting erupted there, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Russia’s bombing on Thursday hit dozens of Ukraine’s military targets, including troops concentrated in the east, with artillery batteries near the eastern community of Zarozhne and near the city of Saraketo. Mykolaiv.
The war destroyed Ukraine’s medical infrastructure, Zelensky said in a video link to a charity event in the UK, with up to 400 medical facilities damaged or destroyed, he said.
“It’s a catastrophic situation with access to medical services and medicines,” he said. “Even simple medicine is lacking”.
Given the challenge of clearing and restoring mines after the war, Zelensky announced the launch of a global funding platform called United24.
At the same time, Poland hosted an international donor conference, which raised $ 6.5 billion in humanitarian aid. The meeting was attended by prime ministers and ambassadors from many European countries, as well as representatives from other countries and companies.
Additionally, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers began to formulate a comprehensive plan for post-war reconstruction, while Zelensky also called on Western allies to develop a program similar to the post-WWII Marshall Plan to help. on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
This was reported by Anna in Ukraine, from Zaporizhia. Associated Press reporters Jessica Fish in Zaporizhia, Inna Varenitsia and David Keaton in Kiev, Yura Karmanau in Lviv, Mstislav Chernov in Kharkov, Lolita Baldor in Washington, and AP staff around the world contributed to the report this.
Source: Huffpost
