by Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, May 6 (Reuters) – Ukraine announced on Friday the start of a new evacuation of civilians trapped at the giant Azovstal steel site in Mariupol, after a first attempt to get them out the day before failed. this pocket of Ukrainian resistance against which Russian troops are continuing their offensive.
The port city in southern Ukraine, of strategic importance for both Kyiv and Moscow, is one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war and the Azovstal factory, built on tens of hectares during the Soviet era, is the last bastion of Ukrainian fighters.
The United Nations began last weekend to evacuate some of the hundreds of civilian refugees in the site’s network of tunnels and shelters, but these operations were interrupted by the resumption of fighting.
“A new stage of rescuing our compatriots from Azovstal is underway at the moment. Information on the results of this operation will be provided later,” said Andri Yermak, head of Ukrainian presidential services, without further details. .
Mariupol authorities later accused Russian troops of violating a ceasefire in Azovstal by shooting at a car taking part in an evacuation, citing a death toll and six injuries among Ukrainian fighters. Russia did not react immediately to these declarations.
Moscow, which continues to speak of a “special military operation” in connection with the invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, has reoriented its offensive in the east and south of the country in recent weeks for lack of success in take Kyiv, the capital.
The new front aims to limit Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, vital for its grain and metal exports, and to link the occupied eastern territories and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
KYIV REQUESTS HELP FROM DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Friday that Russian forces were continuing their “attempts to completely take over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, strongholds of pro-Russian separatists for eight years.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it destroyed a major ammunition depot in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, with a missile strike and added that its air defenses shot down two Ukrainian warplanes in the area of Luhansk.
The veracity of both sides’ information about the fighting could not be independently verified.
In Mariupol, the Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian attempts to take control of the Azovstal site had resumed and were receiving air support.
An estimated 200 civilians remain trapped underground in the fighting zone, with limited access to water and food.
The Ukrainian Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories has requested the assistance of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to assess the physical and mental health of the Ukrainian fighters present at the site, to collect evidence of the conditions they face and provide medical aid to “Ukrainians whose human rights have been violated by the Russian Federation”.
For its part, Amnesty International has announced that it has gathered evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, including extrajudicial executions and cases of torture of civilians.
This information “can be used, hopefully, to hold the perpetrators to account, if not today, one day in the future,” Amnesty adviser Donatella Rovera told a conference release in Kyiv.
EU TOUCH UP DRAFT NEW SANCTIONS PACKAGE
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that his army was ready to allow the safety of civilians in Mariupol but he also called once again on Ukrainian forces to surrender their arms.
The Kremlin refutes Ukrainian claims that Russian troops have stormed the site in recent days and adds that humanitarian corridors have been set up. The Russian army has promised a suspension of its operations for two days to allow civilians to leave the area without risk.
Vladimir Putin announced on April 21 that Russia had won the Battle of Mariupol by ordering its troops to cordon off the Azovstal site.
Kyiv said the Russian army could step up its offensive ahead of May 9 on Monday, the day commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
“The time will come to celebrate Victory Day in Mariupol,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press briefing on Friday in response to a question about Moscow’s intentions for May 9 in the occupied Ukrainian territories.
On Sunday, on the eve of this key day for Moscow, the leaders of the G7 will take part in a videoconference meeting devoted to the situation in Ukraine, at the invitation of the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced Berlin, which chairs the group this year. .
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has also declared that her country will deliver seven howitzers to Kyiv, which will be added to the five artillery systems of this type already promised by the Netherlands.
For its part, the European Commission, according to several European sources, has altered its proposal for an embargo on Russian oil, in an attempt to convince the most reluctant Member States to adopt it, in particular by extending the period of exemption granted to Hungary and Slovakia.
(Reporting Pavel Polityuk, with Alessandra Prentice, Natalia Zinets, Ronald Popeski and Reuters bureaus; French version Marc Angrand, editing by Sophie Louet)