Ukraine denounces that Russia has intensified attacks against the Azovstal steel mill and is advancing east

Euskaraz irakurri: Errusiak Azovstal altzairutegiaren aurkako erasoak areagotu dituela salatu du Ukrainak

The Russian troops have intensified in the last hours the attacks against the Azovstal Steelworks, in the besieged city of Mariupol, while advancing in their goal of controlling the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, in eastern Ukraine, according to the latest part of the High Command of the Ukrainian Army released by the local agency ukrinform.

For its part, the Kremlin assures that its military forces continue to comply with President Vladimir Putin’s order not to attack the steel mill, although it assures that the blocking of the factory continues. In this way, he wanted to imply that he continues to keep his promise to keep three days of truce to facilitate the evacuations in the zone.

Putin commanded on April 21 call off the storming of Azovstal, a territory of 11 square kilometers, to avoid casualties, but ordered to block the industrial zone in such a way that “not even a fly gets out”. Meanwhile, Russia maintains control over the rest of Mariupol.

Stage “a victory”

According to the Ukrainian government, Russia intends to celebrate in the port city on May 9 the victory day about Nazi Germany, “spreading on Russian television stories about the ‘joy’ with which local residents have greeted the Russian occupation troops.” For his part, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbantold Pope Francis that Putin would want end the conflict that day after the total capture of the city.

Meanwhile, the Azovstal plant is the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in the strategic port city of Mariupol, and they are still holding out there. hundreds of civilians entrenched since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, including children, although some have already been able to leave thanks to a evacuation operation sponsored by the UN and Red Cross.

Humanitarian evacuations

The UN has made its top priority the evacuation of civilians from the areas most affected by the war, mainly the city of Mariupol, while continuing to denounce “the horrors” living in the country as a result of the armed conflict.

The organization has confirmed that this Thursday it launched another mission to extricate people trapped by the fighting in Mariupol and at the Azovstal steelworks. The operation has been carried out together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), like the other two carried out this week, which have allowed the evacuation of almost half a thousand peoples, of which at least a hundred were in the plant.

Since the start of the conflict, the UN has been confined to a limited role in Ukraine, as Russia’s veto power blocks any action in the Security Council and because Moscow does not view UN Secretary-General António Guterres as impartial and Consequently, it does not accept him as a mediator to negotiate peace.

Thus, the organization has opted to focus on the humanitarian aspect, coordinating as far as possible the supply of aid and the evacuation of civilians.