File:B0134120-4128-49f7-9674-4f1134ac40ad a28fcb6f.jpg
Summary
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According to Putin plan, the Russian fascists try to convert all the Ukraine to ruins Mariupol destroyed by the Russian occupants, 2022.04.19 [1]
Description
Russians drop bunker-busters on Mariupol steel plant, call on Ukraine defenders to surrender
Mariupol’s Ukrainian defenders are holding out against Russian forces in the city’s Azovstal steel plant
Capturing the southeastern port city would be Russia’s biggest victory after two months of fighting.
Published: 1:52pm, 19 Apr, 2022
Smoke rises above the Azovstal steel and iron works, in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image obtained from a recent drone video posted on social media.
Photo: Mariupol City Council via Reuters
Russia on Tuesday called on Ukrainian forces to “immediately lay down arms” and issued a new ultimatum for the defenders of the besieged port city of Mariupol to give up their resistance.
The Russian defence ministry called on Kyiv to show “reason and give the corresponding orders to fighters to cease their senseless resistance”, adding that defenders of Mariupol would be “guaranteed survival” if they laid down their arms starting at noon.
Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, which contain myriad buildings, blast furnaces and rail tracks.
The Ukrainian defenders ignored a Russian ultimatum on the weekend to surrender.
The United States said nearly a dozen Russian battalion tactical groups have been tied up trying to defeat them for weeks. Earlier on Tuesday, Russia-backed separatist forces said they were trying to storm the plant, the RIA news agency quoted separatist spokesperson Eduard Basurin as saying.
That came after the commander of the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard said Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the steel plant.
Denys Prokopenko, whose soldiers have been holding out against Russian forces in the key southern port city, said in a video message that the bombs were dropping even though civilians were also sheltering in the Azovstal steel plant.
“Russian occupational forces, and their proxy … know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory,” he said.
The city council said at least 1,000 civilians were still hiding in shelters beneath the vast steel plant. A Russian separatist deputy commander described the factory as a “fortress in a city” on Russian state TV last week.
Capturing the southeastern port city of Mariupol would be Russia’s biggest victory after two months of costly fighting and could help reassure the Russian public amid the worsening economic situation from Western sanctions.
It would allow Russia to secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets.
Mariupol’s seizure also would make more troops available for the offensive in the east, which, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a vital piece of the country and victory that he could sell to the Russian people.
Ukraine estimates that 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Russia on social media that refusing to open humanitarian corridors will justify war crimes trials. Russia, for its part, said “neo-Nazi nationalists” have hampered evacuations. Russia also denies targeting civilians in what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate dangerous nationalists.
It rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, saying Ukraine has staged them to undermine peace talks.
In peace time, the Azovstal iron and steel works pumped out 4 million tonnes of steel a year, 3.5 million tonnes of hot metal and 1.2 million tonnes of rolled steel.
Like the city’s other Illich Steel and Iron Works, Azovstal is held by Metinvest, the group controlled by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man.
Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse
References
- ↑ https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3174748/russians-drop-bunker-busters-mariupol-steel-plant-fortress Russians drop bunker-busters on Mariupol steel plant, call on Ukraine defenders to surrender Mariupol’s Ukrainian defenders are holding out against Russian forces in the city’s Azovstal steel plant Capturing the southeastern port city would be Russia’s biggest victory after two months of fighting. Published: 1:52pm, 19 Apr, 2022 ..
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