The “next stage” of evacuating Ukrainian civilians from its steel plant Mariupol Azofstal is in progress, announced on Friday Andriy Germak, head of the office of the Ukrainian president.
The United Nations said on Thursday it hoped a joint UN-International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy would be able to evacuate more civilians from the steel plant on Friday.
About 500 civilians were recently evacuated from both the factory and the city of Mariupol, according to a tweet from Germak and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres early Friday, while more by 300 civilians from the area of ​​Mariupol have arrived in the city of Zaporizhia.
“Ukraine will continue to do everything to save all civilians and the military. “I thank the UN for its help,” said Germak.
“Today we are focusing on Azofstal,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Verestsuk. “The business is starting now. “We pray for her success,” he said.
Last night, Verestsuk had stated that the residents of Mariupol were called to gather at 13:00 Greek time in front of a shopping center in the city to allow their removal.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday that a third operation was under way to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Azovstal. The United Nations also announced yesterday that it had sent a new motorcade to the steel plant, which is believed to still hold about 200 civilians.
“Battle to the end”
However, the Ukrainian army said early Friday that “the (Russian) blockade of the Defense Forces units in the Azovstal region continues. “In some areas, the enemy has resumed offensive operations with the support of the air force in order to take control of the factory.”
Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel plant are fighting to the end, with ammunition and food running out.
The wife of one of the Ukrainian fighters fighting the Russian forces in the factory said that the soldiers “will fight to the end”, while the Secretary General. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the UN is doing everything possible to bring the remaining civilians out of what it describes as a “landscape of hell”.
Russia wants to occupy Azovstal before May 9
According to SKAI’s correspondent in London Thanasis Gavos, the British Ministry of Defense points out in a morning briefing on the developments in Ukraine that the new attempt of the Russians to secure the factory and complete the occupation of Mariupol is probably connected with the Day. Moscow on May 9 “and with Putin’s wish for a symbolic success in Ukraine.”
Russian forces reportedly continued the ground attack on the factory for a second day, despite claims that the only goal there was to blockade Ukrainian forces.
However, it is noted that this military effort of the Russians has been accompanied from price to soul potentialequipment and ammunition.
“As long as the Ukrainian resistance continues in Azovstal, Russian losses will continue to grow and complicate Russian operational plans in southern Donbass,” the statement from London concluded.
At the same time, the commander of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said in an interview with the new television channel TalkTV that there is “incredible pressure” on Russia to show tangible results in the war.
Sir Tony’s assessment, however, is that Putin is waging a parallel “war of attrition” to keep his forces stockpiled, which could potentially run out of missiles and ammunition in Ukraine.
“The pace of spending ammunition and the hardness of the battle is of a completely different magnitude than what was expected on February 24th. (The Russians) suffer a severe blow to their armed forces. “We had 25% of their forces neutralized, either through people being killed or due to damage to regular battle groups,” said Admiral Radakin.
He also questioned the Russians’ ability to claim victory in eastern Ukraine, citing a “hurried” operation that did not have the time to make the improvements needed after the failure in northern Ukraine. “The Russians are having a hard time making what we call a modern campaign, which creates a dynamic,” he said.
Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said from a visit to Finland that Russian generals were now blaming each other for failing to secure victory in Ukraine.
He added that the generals were becoming Putin’s scapegoats for the “catastrophe” in Ukraine and were blaming each other for fear of being ousted if the “swamp” on the battlefield turned into a retreat.
In a joint @UN–@ICRC operation, 2 safe passage convoys successfully evacuated nearly 500 people from the Azovstal plant, Mariupol & surrounding areas.
I hope that continued coordination with Moscow & Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage.
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 5, 2022
“Static war fronts”
The Ukrainian military has reported fewer Russian ground attacks in the past 24 hours, but said there was still ongoing bombardment of several areas along the front line in the east and south of the country.
The overall picture suggests relatively static fronts, with Russian forces still unable to occupy cities and villages attacked for the first time a month ago.
In its operational briefing on Friday, the General Staff said Russian forces appeared to be regrouping and efforts to seize territory were limited to areas such as Popasna in the Luhansk region.
Serhi Haydain, head of the Luhansk military administration, said Popasna was being “bombarded around the clock. The enemy attacks entire battalions daily. “The city is almost destroyed.”
Russian forces have sporadically targeted missiles at infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk region, but do not occupy any part of the region, according to Ukrainian forces.
“Little Russian Progress in Donbass”
Russian forces have noted “Some small progress“Especially in the northern part of the Donbass region” of Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing on Thursday.
This little progress is not the progress that the United States believes Russian forces “expected to have at this point” in the region, Kirby added.
“In the Donbas area, we still felt that the Ukrainians were putting up a very tough resistance,” he said.
– Α
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